Audit: Purchasing system in St. Mary schools inefficient

howard@tri-parish.com

The St. Mary Parish School Board has learned that its internal purchasing procedures aren’t making the grade.

Barbara Watts, of the Morgan City firm Darnall, Sikes, Gardes & Frederick, delivered the news in this year’s independent audit, which the board commissioned in accordance with state law.

“During the course of the audit we noted several inefficiencies in the purchasing function,” she said. Among them, “the time consuming process required to get a purchase order issued.”

Watts said the board’s purchase order process begins with a requisition that goes through a minimum of six different employees for various approvals and verifications before a purchase order is finally issued. And, if one of the delegated employees in this process is absent, the requisition will not move forward until that employee returns. “This scenario causes further delays in the process,” the auditors wrote.

Also, workers often have to negotiate prices, meet bid law requirements, establish vendor relationships and outsource projects – work outside of their regular job scope.

Watts suggested the board convert to a centralized purchasing system – “a system of purchasing in which authority, responsibility and control of activities are concentrated in one administrative unit,” she said.

Personnel assigned to the department would be trained in all aspects of purchasing, sourcing and pricing, which would ultimately save the school board and improve efficiency, she explained.

In other fiscal matters, the board learned it had an undesignated fund balance of $3.1 million on June 30, the end of its 2008 to 2009 fiscal year. As a result, the board agreed to allocate $2.5 million of that amount for future emergencies and placed $625,238 in its coffers, which totals $21.7 million.

Also at last week’s meeting, school board President Roland Verret announced he will re-establish the parish’s school uniform committee. “I’m not saying we’re going to do away with uniforms. What I am saying is that we’re going to talk about our uniform policies. These are tough times for many families and I don’t want to put anyone in a financial bind,” he said.

The board also approved an agreement with the state for the district to participate in the federal Race to the Top initiative. Designed by President Barack Obama, the program seeks to accelerate student achievement through targeted teacher and classroom reforms.

According to Superintendent Donald Aguillard said all 66 of the state’s school systems are eligible to compete for a share of $250 million in grants.

“Those systems who opt not to participate will forfeit their share of the pie to the pool, which is earmarked to be equally divided among all of the school systems who elect to participate,” Aguillard said.