The DeKalb County School System has been written up in the latest state audit report for a school federal projects fund cash overdraft in the amount of $96,023 as of June 30, 2012.
Director of Schools Mark Willoughby said the reason for the overdraft is because the school system did not receive its federal reimbursement of grant expenditures in time to cover it.
Willoughby told WJLE that its not a serious finding since the federal reimbursement was expected, but to keep a cash overdraft from happening again, he has asked County Mayor Mike Foster to help the school system address the issue. “Back in 2009, we received a letter from the state saying that something like this might show up in the audits in the future. In dealing with federal and state funds, we have to spend the money before we’re reimbursed. We have thousands of dollars we’ve written grants for but it takes a while for that grant money to reimburse. Again, we have to spend the money before we can request for the reimbursements. We run all of our after school programs with federal funds. I’ve talked with Mr. Foster. He and the budget committee are going to be meeting. Its recommended from the state that we set up a reserve fund to cover situations like this,” said Willoughby.
The management response to the auditors finding, states that “The school system will monitor expenditures to ensure that a cash overdraft does not exist when closing our books in June. The school system will continue to adhere to federal program guidelines when requesting reimbursement for expenditures. During the 2011-12 school year, several programs operated in the month of June for which reimbursement was not received until mid-July, We realize that federal programs operate on a reimbursement basis, and an effort will be made to finalize all anticipated expenditures earlier in the school year so that reimbursement may be realized prior to closing the books.
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