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An audit of an Orange County High School activity fund has uncovered $213,940 the School Board socked away last year to buy equipment for its hoped-for wireless/broadband project.
The Board of Supervisors requested the audit after learning that federal funds would likely be available to finance the effort to provide wireless communications in the school system and the governments of Orange County and the towns of Orange and Gordonsville.
The money was paid into the Hornet Technologies Activity Fund in June 2003, at the end of the last fiscal year. Had the money stayed in the school system's operating fund it would have had to be refunded to the county.
Hornet Technologies is a high-school activity that teaches students to build, repair and sell computers to the school system and the general public. Former school system Finance Director Andy Hawkins acknowledged yesterday that he authorized the two invoices from the Hornet Technologies activity fund to the School Board, which approved the payments.
"We didn't want the money to revert back to the Board of Supervisors," said Hawkins, now the director of the Fairfax County school system's budget office. "But there was nothing underhanded; everybody knew what was going on."
He insisted that issuing the dummy invoices was not illegal and noted that the School Board approved the plan to put the money aside.
The audit of the Hornet Technologies Activity Fund was performed by Robinson, Farmer, Cox Associates and covered July 1, 2003, to April 30, 2004.
In a cover memorandum, the auditor notes that "two invoices were issued to the Orange County School Board, even though no services were provided." It goes on to recommend that the funds received in payment of the invoices be returned to the School Board.
According to school Finance Director Barbara Hill, the money was transferred from the technology fund to the school system yesterday.
School Superintendent David Baker explained that a year ago the system thought it was close to developing a contract with a vendor to purchase equipment for the wireless/broadband system. The technology department wanted to have money readily accessible to complete the deal, he said.
"It was all done in the open. The money was earmarked for the wireless project and was never touched," he said.
Baker said the school system should have asked supervisors to carry over the money for another year, but there was no intent to deceive.
"If we are guilty of anything, it's being overly aggressive in pursuing the wireless project, which will benefit both the county and the school system," he said.
The Hornet Technologies audit is scheduled for discussion at next week's Board of Supervisors' meeting.
At the same time, the supervisors and the school division will grapple with who gets the additional $1,036,000 the state will be sending the county during the next fiscal year.
The state has said that its money can be used by the school system or the county--or divided between them. Supervisors will decide who gets what.
The School Board wants the money to pay for a custodian for the Prospect Heights Annex, $100,000 for its contingency fund and the balance for school capital improvement projects.
But County Administrator C. Edward Kube Jr. said the money--generated from the half-cent of the sales tax that goes to local governments--is being sent back to the county to be used for either the school system or to be put in the county's general fund to lessen dependency on real-estate taxes.
To reach ROBIN KNEPPER: rknepper@earthlink.net