Mark Russell and Dave Barry, both satirists, have complained that life is getting be such a parody of itself, it is hard to make a living satirizing it! If you read my Friday post about the DISD credit card scandal, wait till you see the article on the front page of the Sunday 1/28/07 edition.
Two principals have been asked to resign and another is being reassigned.Dwain Govan has refused to resign.A third principal is being 'reassigned.' He has purchased some $236,300 between January 2004 and June 2006. What you say, well $10,589.15 for furniture at Haverty's, not a DISD vendor. And $22,667.15 at Fry's, also not a vendor, and this included four flat screen tvs bought with federal grant money. Mr. Govan believes "he is a fall guy." Let me be the first to say I don't think anyone should be tried in the newspaper, but there is quite a bit of circumstantial evidence, none of which is being denied.
Here is the link to DMN but it will probably change to something else in a day or two.
Well, I will put the article on reserve in the library so you can read it yourself, there is more, much more. But to the issue at hand, DISD has said about 10 employees will face criminal charges, and about 600 could face administrative discipline, which is half of all the folks that were issued cards.
Okay several questions come to mind.
Where are we drawing that famous line in the sand here? At what level of dollar theft, er misuse, er misunderstanding, er, we must have coded the account wrong, am I
reprimanded
re assigned
asked to resign (how about fired, is that out of fashion these days?)
prosecuted
booted permanently and totally forever and always out of Texas Education?
Okay so I suggested the last choice. But last time I checked theft by credit card was just that, the only dollar difference is a misdemeanor or felony.
Meanwhile were this a final exam question, no this is too far fetched for that...
Where were the internal auditors?
Most of you in the grad class are not accounting majors-well here is the perfect reason to learn a few things about accounting. Suppose you woke up to Sunday morning newspaper story like this as a Board DISD member or Superintendent or staff member? What would you say at the press conference? What should you have done to guard against this happening? The answer is proper internal control. But no doubt the Board was under the impression they had some of that, whoops. So what are the tough questions to ask to make sure internal control is in place.
IN answer to my own question, I went back after making this post amd examined the DISD site and am adding this link to the new District Integrity Office at DISD. At present that job shows to be vacant, evidenty a newly created post. And there is an interim Internal Auditor and that dept does show to report to the Board. I don't know any further facts and will not comment, however, what do you think of a District Integrity Office?
Meanwhile
Where were the external auditors? Is this gang that can't audit straight still on the job for we taxpayers? Do either the external or internal auditors have any culpability here?
Well who knows what next week will bring? Another story in the paper has the Dallas Chamber of Commerce still trying to overcome the image created by the tv series, Dallas, and its crafty central character, J R Ewing. Sounds like there is still some image work to be done......
DLE
I hope those flat screen TV's are sitting in the classroom somewhere. You can debate the issue of ethics all day regarding this article. Bottom line: Most educators are just not paid what they are worth. But when they act like this, who wants to pay them anything? I guess there is a reason for checks and balances in any organization.
I laugh when I say that because I am forced to look at the federal government. The same people who wrote Sarbanes Oxley are the ones that spend our federal budget into oblivion. And they know all of the loopholes.
Posted by: Jason Raper | January 28, 2007 at 09:44 PM