DETROIT – It doesn’t add up.
That’s the sentiment that coming from Detroit Public School teachers who staged a two-day sick-out this week in protest over being told they would not get paid this summer.
At one time, the district had a surplus. But now, after a variety of emergency managers, it can’t pay its bills.
Where did the money go?
To find out, the Local 4 Defenders obtained the most recent Office of the Inspector General report from 2014, which exposed waste and fraud. The majority of investigations centered around theft, 188 cases were investigated. There were 92 cases of ethics violations and 79 payroll fraud cases.
In March 2014, some of the district’s supplies, valued at $17,000, were stolen because they were not properly secured, according to the report.
In August of 2013, the Inspector General discovered funds were missing at one DPS school because the administrator did not safeguard it by using the school’s safe, despite it being in the school’s main office.
In April 2013, the Inspector General learned a high school administrative employee received overpayments totaling nearly $18,000 for after school work. It was later discovered that the work was never done.
The report reveals even more mismanagement, including an administrator who directed staff to falsify student attendance data, misallocated grant funding and misappropriated gift cards.
The Defenders tried to obtain a copy of the 2015 audit, but were told it’s still not completed.
Inspector General Audit Report for DPS (2014)