By LAURA GIOVANELLI
Evening Sun Reporter
In response to allegations
made by three Littlestown Area School District residents that there are discrepancies
in the district’s financial reports, the school board now is asking its
own auditing firm to review the men’s findings.
The district’s auditor,
Grenewalt Accounting, a firm based in Mechanicsburg, is examining what Russell
Fish, Terry Scholle and Paul Sharpless claim are accounting abnormalities made
by the school district. On May 21, the men said their own six-month investigation
turned up errors in the district’s monthly treasurer’s reports.
By the June 17 school board
meeting, the district might have an answer to the charges, according to school
board president John Warehime. He said he hopes by then the auditor will have
had time to examine the district’s books where Fish, Scholle and Sharpless
say numbers don’t add up.
“I think what you’re
going to find are very elementary mistakes” in the trio’s research,
Warehime said.
He said Grenewalt will
see if the three men looking at the treasurer’s reports made errors of
their own. And he wants the district’s auditor to be at the board’s
next regular meeting to address the charges.
But Scholle said he thinks
an accounting investigation done by an auditing firm the district has used for
years doesn’t qualify as independent.
“It does seem a little
odd. Anyone who can work a pencil and paper can see the irregularities”
in Littlestown’s financial records, Scholle said. He said he and the two
other men turned over copies of the financial reports that are made available
to the public at the end of each month.
“It’s going
to be interesting to see how the information we presented as fact is interpreted,”
Scholle said. “Are (the auditors) not getting the same data? Is it different
from what the public gets? How can they get their auditors to add it up?”
Superintendent Robert McConaghy
said Grenewalt was conducting an investigation because the firm had examined
the district’s accounting records for about 20 years. And Warehime said
if there was any question about the auditor’s ties to the district, the
board would consider another auditor to look in the allegations.
In May, Sharpless asked
the board to conduct an independent audit of its books as soon as possible,
preferably before it passes the 2002-03 budget. The budget is up for adoption
at the June 17 board meeting and includes an occupational assessment tax increase
from 75 to 100 percent, which would give the district an additional $300,000
in spending.
In drawing up the budget,
school board officials found themselves facing a shortfall of more than $600,000
for next year. They hope to make up that difference in part through the tax
increase. The remainder will be withdrawn from the district’s fund balance.
But instead of increasing
taxes, the three men would like the district to use money they say is unaccounted
for in Littlestown’s ledgers, which they claim adds up to $11 million.
Fish, Scholle and Sharpless said last month the missing funds were lost through
accounting errors, discrepancies in the monthly treasurer’s reports and
missing checks.
But Warehime dismissed
the accusations as baseless. He said a report by Grenewalt will be able to discount
the men’s claims.
The school board will meet
for its regular meeting June 17 at 7:30 p.m.