Letter: School board blind to obvious nepotism

I am beyond appalled at the actions of the Beaufort County Board of Education as reported on Dec. 5.

In my previous life in government acquisition, conflicts of interest -- both personal and organizational -- were critical issues. Even the appearance of impropriety was considered a breach, and there are strict rules in place to manage such occurrences, which apply to both government and contractors.

The school board should be saying that no family member should be employed where there is any possibility that he or she would be supervised or rated by anyone who was also under the supervision of another family member. Period.

Even more egregious is the elimination of a provision that prohibits family members of district employees who award contracts from seeking employment with district vendors. Unless the company is large enough to have several divisions that don't do business with the district, you cannot avoid a conflict of interest.

Contracting officers must recuse themselves from any competition where they have a personal interest; i.e. a family member employed by an offeror. Offerors must provide mitigation plans if there is a personal or organizational conflict of interest, or they must be eliminated from the competition.

Why should the professional standards for the school board be any less? They hold the public trust and are elected by the public. What are these people thinking?

I look forward to the next election.

Karen H. Reuter

This story was originally published December 24, 2015 at 2:12 PM with the headline "Letter: School board blind to obvious nepotism."