By Bob Walsh
More information has come out from the audit of the
Stockton Unified School District perfomred by the state. A reasonable
conclusion is that the district could be forced to pay back several
million dollars on Covid relief funds and people could be prosecuted for
fraud.
The audit concluded
that $7.3 million in spending of Covid pandemic relief funds was
questionable. Former officials pushed thru the purchase of 2,200 UV air
filters despite being warned that they were not approved for use. Only
about 1/3 of those filters were ever installed. The purchasing manager
and chief business officer of the district eventually quit rather than
assist the board in making the purchase in a manner they former
employees regarded as manipulative of the bidding process.
The
audit asserted that former Interim Superintendent John Ramirez Jr. and
former Chief Business Officer Marcus Battle "failed to perform their
fiduciary duty."
District
Attorney Ron Freitas is quoted as sayng, "I look forward to thoroughly
reviewing the independent auditor's report....any attempt to commit
fraud on the backs of out children will be prosecuted....."
There
are calls for current board members Alicia Rico, Ray Zulueta Jr. and
Cecilia Mendez to resign. They voted for the contract in question. The
board voted 6-1 to approve the purchase even though district staff
rated it as the lowest in quality of the five bids presented. The
presenter, IAQ, was NOT a licensed contractor in CA and was known to be
the subject of various labor relations complaints at the time the
contract was approved.
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