Beaufort County school board’s financial transparency cannot be trusted
The beleaguered Beaufort County Board of Education is asking the public for more money. There will be a special election in April, costing $113,000, to enable them to borrow $76 million. How they arrived at that amount is a mystery, since a few days prior they claimed they needed $129 million. This is obviously an arbitrary number. That fact alone requires a “no” vote.
I recently discovered that a credit card payment of more than $5.6 million to the Bank of America was missing from their Transparency Report. According to the school district’s chief financial officer, it was “inadvertent.” She says that a revised November report would be posted on the school district’s website.
The transparency reports have been under scrutiny for months, leading the district to adopt a new method of reporting. Yet, even with the knowledge that everyone is watching, a huge mistake was made.
Was the district hoping that the public would be unaware of this out-of-control spending? During the first five months of Fiscal Year 2018, nearly $16 million has been charged on the 52 credit cards. This pace far exceeds last year’s total of $30 million.
How can anyone trust these so-called transparency reports when the finance department picks and chooses which items to include? How many other entries have been “inadvertently” omitted?
How can anyone trust this sinking ship enough to allow them to borrow another $76 million? Until a full independent audit of the district’s $300 million budget is conducted, I’ll be voting “no.”
Fran Bisi
Hilton Head Island
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This story was originally published January 23, 2018 at 4:28 PM with the headline "Beaufort County school board’s financial transparency cannot be trusted."