20060815 KDDC Former CCPS employee charged with stealing

Former Public Schools employee charged with stealing school funds
Tuesday, August 15th, 2006

Westminster, Carroll County, MD - - The Carroll County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Charles Ecker announced in a news conference this morning that a former Carroll County Public Schools employee with South Carroll High School has been charged with stealing school funds.

The news conference will be broadcast on Channel 21 at the following dates and times: Wed., 8/16, 11 a.m.; Thurs., 8/17, 5 p.m.; Fri., 8/18, 1 p.m.; Sat., 8/19, 9 a.m.; Sun., 8/20, 5 p.m.; Mon., 8/21, 8 p.m. Tues., 8/22, 10 a.m.

Although not named in the subsequent press release, the Carroll County Times reports, “Wendy Sue Bowers, 39, allegedly stole the money over a period of six years by keeping two sets of books,” according to an article written by Penny Riordan.

The Carroll County Times also ran the above photograph of Ms. Bowers.

A press release further reveals:

A former employee is being charged with stealing significant school funds from South Carroll High School. We estimate the amount stolen over six years to be just over $200,000.

The money taken was raised through athletic events, student fundraisers, vending machines profits, student yearbooks, and other such school-based accounts.

It was not funds provided to the school by the school system’s operating budget to support South Carroll’s instructional program.

How did we find out? In early spring, our Finance Department noticed deficits in South Carroll High School’s balances.

Once we the concluded that theft was a possibility, we immediately contacted the State’s Attorney’s office and requested their guidance.

We fully cooperated with them during the investigation.

Another obvious question is “How could it have happened?” We are still working on that answer. While we thought our controls were sound, they obviously weren’t good enough. We will correct them.

Our new procedures will have to assume that everyone is dishonest. That may seem harsh, but this former employee was a very trusted individual who was also a respected payroll clerk and finance clerk in our central office.

Not long after she arrived at South Carroll, she was able to create an intricate and systematic method of stealing that extended back at least six years and allowed her to pay school bills, but still take significant dollars

The next question is “How will we respond?” Our action plan will respond in four separate, but related ways:

1. Education of Staff: We will work with the State’s Attorney’s office, our auditors, our own legal council, and others to highlight real life examples of employee theft. We will provide specific information about how and why it occurs, we will heighten their awareness that, given the right set of circumstances, theft can and will happen anyplace.

2. Increase in School Account Oversight: We will work with our quality control department to provide for more direct supervision of school-based account. This action will include random visits to audit school records with class and club advisors and provide more oversight of school-based deposits and expenditures.

3. Increase in Audit Staffing: Currently, we only have a single person whose job is devoted to quality control. This staffing is inadequate for a school system our size. I will include in next year’s budget request, additional staffing in our audit department.

4. Revision of School-Based Account Control Procedures: As I stated, we are revising the procedures that provide controls to school-based accounts. While some of the cause of this theft was related to the former employee’s in-depth knowledge of the system and her stellar reputation, we can benefit by several changes in our procedures.

They will include:

(a) Eliminating the use of separate account software by financial secretaries. All financial transaction will be completed using the school system’s centralized finance system.

(b)A redesigned Fund Collection Record. This revised form will place an additional review of the deposit of funds for school-based accounts.

(c) Assign ownership of all school-based accounts. Some accounts such as student parking lot permits, vending machine funds and others are not regularly monitored because they are only deposit accounts that do not have regular expenditures to monitor.

(d) Provide more in-service training for administrators, secretaries, athletic directors, club sponsor, and anyone that collects money for school functions. (Currently we do provide in-service training each year for administrators and secretaries)

The money will be recovered, either through repayment of some or all of the missing funds by the former employee, or by insurance.

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