Hammond School Board members' request for a forensic audit of the district's finances remains at a standstill.
Board members agreed to seek proposals for the work last month. But Chief Financial Officer Eric Kurtz says the State Board of Accounts needs to approve the request first, and so far, no one's presented any specific allegations or evidence of fraud.
"The references that I've gotten from the State Board of Accounts, they're unlikely to approve a fishing expedition," Kurtz told the school board Tuesday. "They'd like some specificity."
Board member Carlotta Blake-King, who made the motion to request the audit, said she doesn't trust the State Board of Accounts' process. She said she asked it to investigate in the past and never got a response.
"Maybe the feds need to come in and look at our books because, certainly, when we talk about ESSER II and III and COVID money, that's federal dollars, not state dollars, and a congressional inquiry could certainly be requested of this community, if you really want to get to the bottom of it," Blake-King said.
One of her main concerns was that federal ESSER money was used on building projects and other expenses, rather than specifically to address pandemic learning loss. But Superintendent Scott Miller said there are already audits to make sure that the district is following the necessary guidelines for all of its federally-funded programs.
"The last time, we had zero audit findings in all of them. Like, it really was a good audit. But they do absolutely evaluate how you spent the money."
In the end, Blake-King agreed to discuss her specific concerns with Kurtz, so a request for proposals could be put together and sent to the State Board of Accounts for approval.
