PUSD bond audits a mess
Reporters Caroline An and Nathan McIntire have an article in the paper today about $80,000 allegedly stolen from PUSD's Measure Y bond funds. The basic issue behind the article is that the school district had extremely poor records of its expenditures of taxpayer money- not a good thing with another bond measure on the ballot next week. From the story:
PASADENA - A prosecutor who reviewed allegations that a contractor bilked Pasadena Unified School District out of $80,000 said Tuesday the district's records were so confusing, officials could not determine whether a crime was committed.
District officials said the investigation was tied to missing funds from Measure Y, which voters approved in 1997 to fix up schools.
"Looking at the records they had, we could not conclude what work he did and what work other contractors did," said John A. Perlstein, a prosecutor for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.
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Pasadena police detective Lt. John Dewar, who coordinated the investigation, said detectives "found some serious issues with lack of control and oversight."
"There was no audit to check what was done," he said. "The thieves got in and took the money."
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Meanwhile, PUSD school board member Esteban Lizardo described the handling of work scheduled for Washington Middle School as "a disaster."
"The accountability should have happened," Lizardo said.
UNDER THE DOME
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