Midlands school district warns about potential illegalities in spending decisions

The Lexington-Richland 5 school district has been warned of potential illegalities in the district’s procurement practices.

The school district sent a letter to the S.C. Department of Education last week warning that a yet-unreleased audit “will likely identify significant deficiencies, material weaknesses, and/or direct and material legal noncompliance” and that “any potential malfeasance” will be “reported to the proper law enforcement agency.”

The letter does not cite any specific instances of illegality in the district’s process for making purchases or contracts.

“Upon receipt of the final audit report (due by June), the board will ensure that any potential malfeasance is reported to the proper law enforcement agency and the district’s finance department will develop a Financial Recovery Plan approved by the board and submitted to the Department of Education within 60 days, ” according to the letter, sent to S.C. Education Superintendent Molly Spearman and signed by school board vice chair Ken Loveless.

“The Financial Recovery Plan will address the possible recovery of funds as well as a remediation process to ensure future vendor payments are correctly reviewed and authorized prior to payment,” the letter reads.

Board member Catherine Huddle asked for the letter to be sent at the May 9 board meeting, saying, ”We are talking about a great deal of money, hundreds of thousands if not potentially millions of dollars.”

The letter said school board members became concerned about procurement code violations in February 2021, when they asked that a “problematic contract” for substitute teacher services be re-bid. “In addition, other potential procurement issues dating back several years were investigated,” it said.

In July, after Akil Ross joined the district as its new superintendent, the district contracted with consultant Angela Bain, a former Lexington-Richland 5 administrator who has worked as a superintendent elsewhere in the state, to review the district’s operations.

Bain’s report recommended an audit into Lexington-Richland 5’s procurement process, with a particular emphasis on how projects resulting from a 2008 bond referendum were handled. In September, board members approved a detailed procurement audit for the previous five years.

Huddle emphasized at the May 9 meeting that the review “was initiated by things the board saw well before Dr. Ross arrived on the scene, and he has been nothing but helpful in reviewing these items.”

The letter was approved by a 5-2 vote, with Rebecca Blackburn Hines and Tiffani Moore voting against. Moore said she wanted the district’s attorney to review the letter before it was sent, while Hines said board members were not given enough time to review the information behind the letter.

“What is concerning to me is 10 minutes before we came into this meeting, I was handed a packet of information, including comments on different pages,” Hines said. “I haven’t been able to read through it... It’s not even a preliminary report, it’s some notes.”