Thanks to the Independent for bringing additional facts to bear in the school theft case that other parties were unwilling to share.
I have a decade in auditing and accounting experience in various settings. The multi-year theft that was exposed in school food and equipment procurement highlights significant gaps in internal controls that are deeply concerning. The town is a multi-hundred-million-dollar enterprise and the blatant theft that took place would have been caught by the internal controls in place at your local ice cream stand. In no scenario is this lack of oversight acceptable.
The facts of the case also raise two serious issues. First, why did no employees come forward regarding the theft? In audit jargon this is referred to as “tone at the top.” When employees are afraid of retaliation or fear that their concerns will not be heard they are unlikely to speak up. Second, what controls in place address procurement fraud and asset existence? Surely some basic oversight of food procurement and asset tagging would have highlighted that purchasing lobsters for the schools is unusual and [that] the brand-new fridge was missing. This is day one stuff for any accounting organization.
The town’s external audit firm should be engaged to assess what went wrong to address the potential that this could happen again in the future. This is not something that should be done away with a light-touch internal investigation.
– Daniel Green
Green is a certified public accountant.