by CHRISTINE CONDON, Maryland Matters
A Prince George’s County substitute teacher was paid more than $7 million in 2022 — and two months passed before the school system recouped the funds.
That was the most remarkable finding in a new legislative audit of the county school system, which described a number of ongoing issues with the system’s payroll, procurement and human resources procedures.
The Maryland Department of Legislative Services audit also found that the school system failed to consistently complete a screening process for employees who have contact with children, and that it failed to investigate 9,376 missing items identified in a 2023 inventory, which were valued at about $6.3 million.
School system contracts also came under the microscope, and auditors concluded that the school district’s “procurement policies were not sufficiently comprehensive and were not consistently used when obtaining goods and services.” The school system did not always prepare written justifications, or seek school board approval for expenses, according to the audit.
The audit, dated March 25 and sent to the legislature’s Joint Audit and Evaluation Committee, said the 2022 overpayment for the substitute teacher occurred when a school system employee mistakenly entered the teacher’s identification number in the “hours” field. That led to the teacher being paid for approximately 73,000 work days, rather than three.
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School system officials didn’t realize the overpayment had occurred until more than 50 days later. They recovered the funds within a few days, the audit said.
Payroll problems at the state’s second-largest school system have been persistent, the latest audit said. “Similar conditions regarding the human resource and payroll supervisory reviews were commented upon in our two preceding audit reports,” the audit said.
The school system did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the audit Monday. But in its written response to the audit findings, the system said it has “implemented several preventive measures to improve payroll accuracy and efficiency,” including hiring two new staffers, enhancing training and setting new limits on payroll data entries.
“Any staff member will be held accountable for overpayments that were caused by their inaccurate entries,” the school system added.
In 2019, a new Maryland law took effect requiring school systems to conduct special screenings for employees who would have contact with minors. But auditors checked 10 employees who had been hired in Prince George’s after the law’s effective date, and only three had been screened, even though they had been working with the system for six months or more, according to the audit.
As part of the screenings, school systems must send forms to an applicants’ prior employers, certifying that the person was never the subject of of a child sexual abuse or sexual misconduct investigation by any employer that resulted in a finding.
In Prince George’s County, the process was monitored by an employee “who did not send forms to prior employers, and/or failed to follow up with those employers that did not return a completed form,” the school system said in its response to the audit.
But the school system maintained that three of the 10 applicants didn’t need forms on file, because they did not have prior jobs wherein they had contact with children. One of the 10 applicants had a foreign employer, to which a form was not sent.
The system said it has since debuted an electronic signature program to expedite the screening forms, and it pledged to follow up with the state about “instances where prior employers do not return the required form.”
In evaluating the school system’s procurement procedures, state auditors raised the red flag on two purchases in particular.
Auditors found fault with a contract for cameras aboard school buses because it wasn’t put out for a competitive bid, and auditors questioned higher-than-average fees paid per bus. In response, the county pledged to ensure that future procurements comply with state law, and to document the reasoning for fee amounts.
In addition, the county paid two nonpublic schools $61.3 million for special education services between 2020 and 2023, but there was no written contract, and no board approval, according to the state audit. The county pledged to require written contracts “with each non-public school where we place a student,” and to submit an annual report to the Board about the placements and expenditures.
Prince George’s school officials also failed to follow the system’s policy for equipment tracking, which requires full inventories of any items over $1,500 in value to be conducted every three years.
The school system conducted an inventory in 2019, but then skipped 2022’s inventory, citing concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, the district completed a partial audit, but did not follow up on the findings, which indicated more than $6 million worth of equipment was not accounted for.
In its response, the school system said it initiated a new inventory in spring 2024, beginning with students’ electronic devices in each school. This spring, the school system will conduct an inventory of other classroom technology. The school system is also finalizing a plan to complete inventories every three years, which “will be implemented beginning January 2026 with an estimated completion of January 2029.”
Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org.
