Beaufort County to school district: Audit on credit card spending would be ‘good PR’

Already under intense scrutiny by some members of the public, Beaufort County School District’s credit card spending has now caught the attention of at least four Beaufort County Council members who, in response to constituents’ concerns, recommended Friday that the Beaufort County Board of Education agree to a separate and external audit of credit card spending, something they say would give the district more credibility with voters.

Schools superintendent Jeff Moss, who failed to garner enough ballot support for the district’s $300 million referendum last fall, said Friday that while he agrees an external audit is needed, he disputed the notion that this issue could influence any future referendum.

“The community can decide what’s factual or not,” he said.

Council members Mike Covert, Rick Caporale, Tabor Vaux and Stu Rodman made the informal recommendation and were careful not to call for a “forensic” audit, which they say would hint at criminal wrongdoing.

Instead, the councilmen suggested what they refer to as an external audit, but offered few specifics on how deep the audit should go.

Last spring, a citizen’s advocacy group known as CARE, began poring over the district’s credit card transactions, which totaled about $30 million in the 2017 fiscal year, and raised questions on the district’s accounting practices and individual charges. Since then, the group has been leading the call for a forensic audit, a sweeping financial investigation that looks for any fraud or embezzlement.

CARE co-founder Rich Bisi said he feels very strongly that the county councilmen’s recommendation doesn’t go far enough. The group is pushing for a more comprehensive review that would go beyond this year’s credit card spending and include past construction costs.

“Anything short of that, CARE would not support,” he said.

Covert and Caporale, though, were adamantly against a forensic audit.

“We understand these are allegations and innuendos,” Covert said. “This is not an attack on the school board or the school district, (but) they are not productive with this looming.”

The councilmen call their recommendation a “good PR move” to restore public trust in the school district, which has faltered in the wake of Moss’ 2015 ethics violations and the school board’s handling of it.

“(The school board) just can’t let this (credit card issue) keep festering,” Caporale said. “This isn’t the first public relations firestorm that’s come up in the past few years.”

Their recommendation comes in response to public pressure from their constituents. Covert said he had received at least a dozen calls and hundreds of emails from constituents about the district’s credit card spending.

“This is more than just a small group of people,” he said. “This is becoming larger and larger and larger.”

Moss’ initial recommendation to the board’s finance committee Aug. 10 was to have the district’s current auditor examine additional credit card transactions. On Friday, Moss said he now recommends an external auditor review credit card purchases to “put this whole craziness of fraud and misappropriation to bed once and for all.”

Like CARE, Caporale is advocating for a review of more than one year of credit card transactions. He did not have in mind a number of transactions that would suffice, deferring to whichever auditing firm is hired to determine what constitutes a thorough review.

Neither Caporale or Covert see their recommendation as stepping on the toes of the board or as an ultimatum, though council must approve the district’s budget each year.

Board chairman Earl Campbell did not immediately respond to two calls for comment Friday. A fellow board officer, David Striebinger, applauded the councilmen’s intentions, but argued their involvement could complicate matters.

“They’re trying to show the board that ... it needs to be taken care of, but I think it’s a bad precedent for County Council to pass a resolution telling the board what to do,” Striebinger said. “That would set in motion really taking on a lot of our problems. I don’t think they want to go there.”

Currently, the board is evenly divided on a forensic audit. Last month, a vote to hire a consultant that would have paved the way for a forensic audit failed 5-5.

Striebinger, along with board members JoAnn Orischak and Christina Gwozdz, who often find themselves on the losing side of votes, have asked to delay any further board action on an audit until after the open school board seat is filled in an Oct. 17 special election.

However, the topic appears on Tuesday night’s meeting agenda.

Gwozdz, who does not plan to attend that meeting, asked to postpone any vote on the issue in her absence.

This story was originally published September 1, 2017 at 4:10 PM with the headline "Beaufort County to school district: Audit on credit card spending would be ‘good PR’."