Maryland OIGE review of Somerset County School’s legal expenditures and budgeting
Somerset County, Md. –The Maryland Office of the Inspector General for Education is providing an update on a review of Somerset County Public School’s legal expenditures and budgeting.
The office was looking into complaints it had received since June over the size of legal bills, potential over-billing, and the legal budget planning process. The review found no evidence of improper billing practices and the office is declining to investigate further.
“Rather than reflecting inflated billing rates or improper hourly charges, the increased amount of legal services costs appear consistent with the volume of legal matters involving Somerset during this specified time period,” the OIGE wrote in a management advisory memorandum sent to the school system and board leaders.
Officials added they were left with some questions over how legal expenditures were projected, approved and reported in the budgeting process. The review of budgeting and forecasting will continue.
Based on escalating legal expenses that exceed budgets, the OIGE issued the memorandum to ensure transparency and adherence to statutory provisions when managing budget adjustments.
“OIGE is issuing this Management Advisory Memorandum to share immediate observations and key reminders. We believe it is critical to highlight these internal control and oversight considerations now, rather than awaiting the final conclusion of our review,” OIGE wrote.
The memorandum advised that for legal services agreements, there should be a defined scope of work, cost-cap for bills, regular fee monitoring, following statutory procedures to reallocate funds transparently and legally, and retention or replacement of legal counsel must comply with state and local policies.
In a statement to WMDT, the Somerset County Board of Education attorney said that the board is looking forward to working on continued improvement of their systems and processes.
“Somerset County Board of Education is thrilled to work in a collaborative manner with the OIGE’s office to update its Management System for expenditures and intra-categorial transfers and to upgrade its system which has not been updated for over 20+ years. Somerset County Board and the undersigned counsel is impressed with the new OIGE and her team and we are looking forward to improving and modernising [sic] the process and internal controls under the law,” wrote Gordano Schifanelli, Esq., the board attorney. “Just this year we updated Subtitle 12 of the Maryland Education Article which hasn’t been up updated in over 20 + years. This board and the team Superintendent Bromwell put in place is ready to tackle the next challenge and update the management practices in the Finance Office.”
