SD52's Audit plans shift from Forensic to Internal option

Last week's Board meeting for SD52 returned briefly to a theme that played out at the end of the 2020-21 school year and an issue on financials that made for much of their year end narrative. 

Back when some of their financial challenges from the Spring and the hiring of 10 additional itinerant teachers hired for the 2020-21 year was revealed, the latter a topic which School Board officials somehow had no knowledge of.

The issues of concern towards a financial review was originally made as a call for a Forensic Audit at the June 15th meeting, which had originally set a September deadline.

However,  last week the Board members outlined that after having explored the issue further, that they would be taking a new approach towards any financial audit.

The original plans  of the Spring to have a forensic audit take place have seemingly been put on the shelf; that as the Board chooses to go with an Internal audit conducted by their current auditors KPMG.

Board Chair Kate Toye introduced the topic noting how the Board had sought outside support on the issue.

"Since that time we've gone and looked at outside support as to what exactly we are looking for ...  I believe that what the Board is really looking for is more of an Internal audit and looking towards our Terms of Reference"

Trustee Beil for the most part covered the view of the Board on the topic 

"We did access outside expertise to see what, you know you say Forensic Audit, well once you get to the nitty gritty of what that actually is and what it would provide; putting questions that we had, an Internal audit really did  meet our needs better and it certainly is a different process and one we feel would be beneficial to the District"

The trustees didn't expand too much on their plans and there was no discussion as to what why the plan for the Forensic Audit was lacking, or what they believe the Internal audit will deliver in a better fashion.

The deciding factor for the most part appears to be that of cost, with the School District members observing that a Forensic Audit would require a cap of a least 35,000 dollars; while an Internal Audit may be more appropriate with a financial cap of 14 to 15,000 dollars.

Trustee Maier observed that the School District would only be paying up to $15,000 for the audit and the decide further after that. Recommending that the audit be carried out by the District's external auditor, KPMG.

There were also no information offered up towards any timeline as to when the audit would be completed and if they plan to release the details once it is wrapped up.

The discussion on the Internal audit plans can be reviewed from the School Districts Video archive starting at the one hour, four minute mark.

The decision made for a short summation as part of the School District's information release on the November 9th meeting.

The Spring time issues raised a number of concerns from the Prince Rupert and District Teachers' Union, which saw up to thirteen their membership laid off at that time in response to the budget shortfall that had come at the time.

So far, the PRDTU has not provided for a response to the decision on how the audit plans will move forward.

For more notes on Education in the region see our archive page here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.