The recent audit report involving the former Bookkeeper at Carroll High School focused a tremendous amount of attention on Carroll High and Mrs. Wimbush, but there is a larger problem that the school board has failed to address for decades.
The school board does not conduct internal audits of each school’s financial procedures annually. Generally, the district waits until there is a problem then audits and accuses.
The accusation against Mrs. Wimbush is that she reportedly made the right deposits, but the paperwork didn’t match what the system’s accounting software expected. She says the deposits were made and the bank agreed. Somehow there’s a mess up and the district has thrown Mrs. Wimbush under the bus.
Whether Mrs. Wimbush did something wrong is not the issue here, the issue is that the problem with inconsistencies whether its human or electronic was not discovered until three years after the fact.
An annual audit of the school would have identified the problem in the first year instead of the third year.
Someone would have looked at the software and its procedures to discover how Mrs. Wimbush could make 30 more deposits in the bank than showed up in the system’s software and the bank’s balance and the software balance remain the same. The only difference.
Carroll had a similar problem in recent years, but the bookkeeper died before she could be plastered all over the evening news.
In 1981 the entire community hosted fundraisers to try to replace $10,000 that the system said mysteriously disappeared, but principal Curtis Armand swore was present.
In the 1970’s Gregory Hobson had a similar problem as the principal of Berg Jones.
It would appear that after so many problems that the school board would require its teams to internally audit every school at the close of school each year, to spot problems in procedures.
As it stands now, Mrs. Wimbush has been made the victim in what looks like a big mess up. All of her personal financial business, including her tax documents, leisurely habits, and private employments have been posted in the public domain.
All of which, could have been avoided if the district had done it’s job and audit the procedures and accounts of all of its schools each year.
Anyone who serves as the bookkeeper for any city school should feel uncomfortable, knowing that they may be the next person thrown under the bus, if something goes wrong somewhere and it’s not discovered for years.
Perhaps the next school board will look closer at its policies and procedures. For the last four years, policy and procedures were rarely discussed at school board meetings.
We can do better.
