One of the immediate positive results of Stacie Talbert’s report on internal controls to Huntley School District 158’s board last Thursday night was Superintendent John Burkey’s commitment to require their use from then on.

Here’s what Larry Snow told me:

“At the meeting on Thursday night, I asked Superintendent Burkey if on Friday he would ask his staff and insist that they use purchase orders. He said, ‘Yes.’”

Here’s the summary of the purchasing policy of the Huntley School District supplied by Talbert:

Here is a more detailed extraction from her report about District 158’s internal control problems, purchasing being only one of them:

Purchasing Cycle:

“Overall controls and business processes surrounding the purchasing process are inconsistent, weak, and lend it self to major deficiencies…below are some of the more significant deficiencies…:

There is no professional purchasing agent… All bids, requests for proposals and request for qualifications are handled by the individual departments and the process is not standardized.

“There is no requirement for departments to utilize purchase orders…As a result there are very large dollar amounts request to be paid on a check request… [when] the goods and services have already been received… Develop a threshold for requiring all purchases over an established dollar amount be placed on a purchase order… [and be approved by the] B[oard] o[f] E[ducation]…

“…no accounts payable processing should be tasks within the purchasing area.

“There is no approved purchaser list with established purchasing limits…”

Tomorrow – A specific.