NC community college spent millions with checks signed by former employees, auditor finds
North Carolina State Auditor Beth Wood released a report Thursday detailing Roanoke-Chowan Community College leadership’s failure to notice that the school overpaid several employees for months and distributed millions of dollars in checks signed by people no longer employed by the school.
When those problems were discovered, the community college’s former interim president took months to address them, the auditor found.
After Wood’s office received 15 complaints about the school’s operation and management, it launched an investigation into allegations that detailed waste, fraud and abuse and found that the community college did not have a chief financial officer employed when some of the financial mismanagement occurred in 2019 and 2020.
Though a permanent president took office in May, the lack of oversight as the school experienced major changes could have led to much more severe financial problems.
“The community college is lucky that nobody took advantage,” Wood said in an interview with The News & Observer Thursday. “Money could’ve gone missing easily. Checks could’ve been written for the wrong things easily. Somebody else’s name that didn’t even work there was on the checks. Obviously, no one was looking.”
Three major findings were detailed in the report released Thursday:
- The school issued more than 2,000 checks worth $10.3 million signed by the former president and former controller between August 2019 and August 2020. Both the president and controller whose names were on the checks left in 2019. In issuing checks with invalid signatures, the school was at risk of fraud, Wood said. Wood also pointed to the vacant chief financial officer position and the former interim president’s failure to assess the risk of that vacancy as a cause.
- The college overpaid the salaries of three employees, totaling $45,000 in misspending, Wood said. Each employee was paid for two positions, as they were transitioning into a new role and continued to get paid for their old job, too. Wood recommended the new college president seek reimbursement from those employees.
- Also in 2019 and 2020, the school submitted late payments to the state’s retirement system, resulting in more than $3,500 in fines.
Wood recommended the community college’s board of trustees ensure the president is fulfilling her responsibilities and that the president provides proper oversight.
“It is a lesson learned,” Wood said, “Any organization that’s undergoing key, critical, major changes... do not make these same mistakes.”
In response to Wood’s investigation, Roanoke-Chowan Community College President Murray Williams agreed with the findings and said the school will continue to rectify the problems identified.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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This story was originally published July 29, 2021 at 11:26 AM.
