Audit of Collins Career Center finds paperwork errors

Published 12:00 am Thursday, August 3, 2006

COLUMBUS — An audit of the Collins Career Center released this week by State Auditor Betty Montgomery showed several errors in the processing of federal grant funds, but both the auditor’s office and the school say the violations are relatively minor and are in the process of being corrected.

The audit examined the period between July 1, 2004 and June 30, 2005.

According to the 66-page report, the issues that raised concerns with the auditors were the lack of supporting documentation for the school’s use of federal grant money and the fact that the school did not use some of its grant money within the time frame allotted.

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“Grant money is a valuable resource for schools as they strive to provide top-notch education to their students,” Montgomery said in a press release. “It is important to spend those public dollars appropriately with proper documentation.”

Steve Dodgion, superintendent of CCC, said overall he was pleased with the school’s audit. He admitted there were coding errors

found during the audit, but adjustments have been made.

“There was nothing inappropriate about our spending,” Dodgion said.

He said the issues brought up in the audit were paperwork-related and were “a lot to do about nothing.”

Montgomery spokeswoman Jaclyn Reynolds said the audit simply found errors based on the federal government’s guidelines on the use of grant money. She said the audit did not determine that the school did anything inappropriate with the funds.

“The federal government has very strict guidelines and they expect detailed documentation. When it’s not sufficient, it has to be questioned,” Reynolds said. “We understand that the school is making changes.”