Beaufort finance committee audits transparency report, asks staff about vendor controls and ESSER spending

The Beaufort County Board of Education Finance Committee on April 11 pressed staff for details in the district transparency report and received an update on federal ESSER spending.

During the transparency review, a committee member asked about an 'Arbiter Pay' trust account used to pay game officials and questioned duplicate Internal Revenue Service payments listed in the report. Staff explained those IRS entries are payroll garnishments withheld from employees and held in a liability account before payment. "Those are tax levies withheld from the IRS," Speaker 2 said, explaining the accounting treatment.

Members also questioned large purchases listed by merchant. Speaker 1 asked what controls prevent improper purchases through Amazon, Lowe's, Staples and others. Staff described a requisition-to-purchase-order workflow, two office auditors who review every line of the transparency report, training for campus financial specialists, and a violation policy for improper purchases. "Every line that you see on here, somebody in our office puts their eyes on it and all supporting documentation," Speaker 3 said, describing the layered review process.

The committee reviewed consolidated purchases of $100,000 and over, and staff clarified a $155,220 line reported for 'Chrysler Voyager LX' vehicles. They said four replacement vans were purchased with food-service funds because new vehicles were difficult to source; the vans are slightly used and will be posted on gov-deals when retired. "These are with food service funds, so they don't touch general funds," Speaker 2 said.

On federal relief spending, Miss Maxon presented the ESSER dashboard and said the district is roughly 84% expended on some SR funds. "In March, we had $2,400,000 spent," Miss Maxon said, and staff described a planned amendment to reclassify some indirect costs to direct costs to cover remaining priorities such as mental-health services and a technology refresh.

Committee members asked staff to follow up with the procurement officer on whether high-volume vendor discounts are available and requested a school-by-school Title I allocation breakout at the next meeting to clarify how federal Title I funds are distributed.

The committee approved the agenda and prior meeting minutes at the start of the session and adjourned by unanimous consent at the end of the meeting.