Policy changes already in place for Floyd County Schools

The Latest Local News from the Rome News

The Floyd County school system on Friday implemented changes to its purchasing practices — a day after officials revealed a criminal investigation into the potential misuse of funds.

The policy changes came after school officials met with employees of Periscope Holdings, a purchasing and expenditure tracking company. County school officials tapped Periscope on Thursday, the same day five senior staff retired or resigned in the wake of the investigation.

Police are investigating questionable purchases of computers, electronics and a mini-fridge.

Floyd County police Maj. Mark Wallace said officers have interviewed people and need to review a “mountain of paperwork” dating back to 2011.

Periscope will help develop new policies and procedures to safeguard education dollars.

Purchasing changes put in place Friday include reducing how many vendors the system will use and the number of school employees allowed to buy items, said April Childers, director of accountability and strategic planning.

Employees on a job site no longer can leave and buy a product. Instead two “runners” will be at the schools’ administrative building. Those people will get needed items and take them to a site, said Tim Hensley, assistant to the superintendent.

“We hope that it raises efficiency in the work place,” Childers said.

Childers and Lee Kaylor, accounting facilitator, are working with Periscope on the schools’ new purchasing policies, some of which haven’t yet been implemented. Periscope reviewed those policies Friday and suggested tweaks to a few, Kaylor said.

Periscope suggested the system discard purchase orders in favor of purchase cards, or P-cards. A purchase order is on paper and not as efficient as a P‑card, similar to a credit card.

P-cards have limits on how much money can be spent and restrictions on what items can be bought. Less chance of abuse exists with P-cards, and they reduce redundancy, Kaylor said.

School officials began writing new policies before the criminal investigation was revealed. The policies are tied to new human resources and purchasing software bought a few months ago, according to Kaylor.

“It’s a very paper-based system,” he said of the old software.

Superintendent Jeff McDaniel has said a test of the new software led several days ago to the discovery of questionable purchasing practices. Police were contacted about a week ago.

On Thursday, the same day the school system revealed the investigation and announced Periscope’s involvement, the Floyd County Board of Education held an emergency meeting and entered a closed-door session. It voted unanimously afterward to accept the retirement and resignations of five senior staff.

McDaniel refused to say if the investigation and staff departures were connected. He had no specific estimate on how much money may be missing, but indicated it might be thousands of dollars.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Rome News

The post Policy changes already in place for Floyd County Schools appeared first on My Web Pal.

from My Web Pal http://ift.tt/1OoNDWu

via http://ift.tt/16tBHl4