Miami-Dade Schools receive internal audit on non-school site spending
MIAMI - CBS News Miami is looking at how Miami-Dade school employees are spending money after the arrest of a former school board member Lubby Navarro, who faces several charges after allegedly using a district-issued purchase card for personal items and vacations.
On Tuesday, the Miami-Dade School Board received an internal audit examining the non-school site spending.
"This money belongs to the taxpayers," said Dr. Steve Gallon III, who represents District One.
He discussed the findings that "no evidence of material fraud, waste, or abuse was found" in Purchase-Card spending.
"We have a fiduciary responsibility to monitor to ensure compliance," emphasized Dr. Gallon.
On January 17th, the school board approved launching internal audits and creating new policies using district credit cards, known as purchase and travel cards.
It came days after former board member Lubby Navarro's arrest on accusations that she spent more than $100,000 taxpayer dollars on personal expenses.
The report outlines randomly sampling 34 monthly statements for 23 of the 116 P-cardholders in 83 departments from July 2021 through January 2024.
Although no fraud was found, there are still problems.
One instance of "250 umbrellas were purchased, costing $2,349." Items were considered "personal." Five purchases with a no-bid contract totaling over $11,000 violated district policy. Other issues were incomplete forms or missing original receipts.
Dr. Gallon stressed the need for continued, enhanced training.
"I hope that any issues that did occur are identified as an anomaly.," said Dr.Gallon. "You can't avoid intent, but you can enhance compliance."
"We need 21st-century systems for the school district to function," added Luisa Santos, another school board member representing District 9.
Santos mentions a newly implemented online system to input and track expenses following Navarro's arrest.
"We all received training on everyone's cards were shut down and were not able to be used until training was confirmed," said Santos.
Still underway is the Office of Inspector General's audit, looking into current and past school board members' spending over the last five years, along with the Office of the Superintendent, the general counsel, and the chief auditor.
"Make sure that every office was following all the rules," said Santos. "I mean, we have had to show every single receipt, whether it was a dollar or $5.10 since I got into office."
Board members were unaware of the timeline for completing the other audit. The report did contain recommendations to assist in monitoring spending and increasing credit card limits.
As for Navarro's next court hearing, it is set for August 26th at 9:30 am.
Click here to read the report.
