BATON ROUGE — An audit by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor found that the Special School District had inadequate control over its food services inventory and lacked control over contract requirements and payroll, along with other issues.

According to the audit, SSD, which includes the Louisiana Schools for the Deaf and Visually Impaired, failed to ensure that complete and accurate inventory records were maintained over the food services inventory for the fifth consecutive report. 

Out of a physical count of 30 items from the food services inventory, auditors noted that 27 items did not agree with the count included on the inventory listing. SSD claimed the count issue was caused by human error and a lack of oversight. 

In addition, for the second consecutive report, SSD employees failed to execute contracts and obtain proper approval in a timely manner prior to taking on expenditures and payments that exceeded contract amounts, increasing the risk for the obtainment of unauthorized services.

Auditors found that SSD obtained expenditures totaling $35,397 for eight invoices prior to obtaining Office of State Procurement approval, which is needed for contracts that exceed $5,000. SSD also made a $4,361 payment for expenditures incurred by a vendor that were for a contract that had already ended, with the expenditures not being included in the contract. 

SSD employees also failed to ensure that all purchases of movable property were recorded in the state's movable property system in accordance with state property regulations for the second time. Out of 82 assets, it was found that 70 were entered into the movable property system with incorrect acquisition costs, resulting in understatements totaling $25,679.  

Auditors found that employees also failed to follow established payroll policies for the approval of time sheets and leave. It was found that payroll policies did not require timely employee certification and supervisor approval of time prior to payroll payment, increasing the risk of payroll errors and fraud. 

Out of 46 time sheets, four were not certified by the employee or approved by the supervisor, two were not certified by the employee, one was not approved by the supervisor, four were certified and approved after employees were paid and 18 time sheets that reflected leave was taken lacked evidence of approval.