School District audit does not show any major concerns
The limited scope audit conducted by Lee County Clerk and Comptroller Kevin Karnes for the Lee County School Board did not reveal any major problems.
Karnes said the suggestions and recommendations that they made to the board were relatively normal and expected.
“I didn’t have anything that shocked or surprised us,” he said.
The audit was performed at no cost to the district.
Last summer, the school board and Karnes agreed on an audit consulting project. The one-time audit was conducted by the Clerk’s peer-reviewed Inspector General Department. The audit was to review the school district’s internal audit department’s internal controls — organizational structures, staffing levels, policies, procedures, and practices.
The biggest find was one the school board already knew — the reporting structure needed to report to the school board.
“That had been something that was caught in another audit. We reiterated that need for that level of independence,” Karnes said.
The focus of the audit is to provide independent observations and value-added recommendations to strengthen operational policies, procedures and practices.
Karnes said they provided helpful tips to move in that direction, if they choose to do it.
He believes that the board and new elected superintendent agree that auditing functions are important for taxpayers for transparency. He said although they have different missions in what they do, there are similarities in how they are structured and the amount of money they are stewards for the taxpayers.
“We can do better and that is not a reflection of anything being bad,” Karnes said. “We know it’s a lot of money and a big responsibility — we want to tell the taxpayers we are doing the right thing by them.”
School Board Chair Sam Fisher also agreed that the audit contained no surprises.
“It’s always good to have an outside entity look at policy and procedures,” he said, adding that many practices are already implementing. “I hope we are kind of setting an example — working together with partnerships, showing public trust and transparency.”
Fisher said the school board is starting to collect applications for a board auditor, who would be a board employee.
Karnes said they are exploring an ongoing relationship with the school board through an interest as the county auditor to facilitate fraud, abuse, and waste operations.
“I would like to maintain that third party vendor for a more technical and complex audit,” he said, adding that it would be a new internal audit department to the board — another lens of accountability and transparency.
Fisher said, “me individually,” would be excited to continue to explore more options with Karnes, as it is an outside entity who is trusted and does something for the county.
“It’s very beneficial for the district — trust and transparency in whatever actions we are handling,” he said.
Karnes said he hopes to do this with other constitutional offices as well, as it is really a historic point in his office. He said the first consultation process is not a one-and-done, but rather an evolution of a relationship with long-term partnerships.
“They have a lot on their plate — we come in with unbiased eyes — you have all these written policies and procedures — (we give) reassurance that your staff is following them,” Karnes said, adding that it gives decision makers a piece of mind, as they don’t have the capacity to dive into the nitty gritty details.
The full report can be found at leeclerk.org/SD.