Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the District Finance Fraud Prevention topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Board approves December financials; finance staff describe intercepted check fraud and move to ACH
Summary
The board approved the district’s December financial statements and staff described two intercepted fraudulent checks and other attempted fraud, and said the district is expanding ACH payments and positive-pay banking controls to reduce risk.
The Springdale School District board voted Tuesday to approve the district’s December financial statements after a staff update about collections and recent payment fraud attempts.
Dee Hobbs, stepping in for the absent finance officer, told the board that current tax collections are about $7,000,000 ahead of the same time last year and that expenditures are generally in line with prior-year levels. She described the district’s use of a positive-pay system with its bank and said the system prevented at least two fraudulent checks from being cashed: one for roughly $53,000 and another for about $10,000 that were intercepted by the bank and not honored.
Hobbs said the district is encouraging vendors to accept ACH payments so the district can reduce physical-check risk and rely less on paper checks. "Our goal is ... to get ACH information from most of our vendors so that it's just much safer and secure," Hobbs said. She added that vendors receive funds faster on ACH and that some vendors use a virtual card product (FIS) that can provide a small rebate, but the district prefers direct ACH for security.
Board members asked several follow-up questions about the Atlanta-based mail interception fraud and the district’s interactions with the Attorney General’s office. Staff said they contacted the state attorney general and were told the AG’s office is aware of a mail-fraud scheme affecting Atlanta mail-processing that had led to intercepted checks.
Following the presentation, Board Member Cook moved and Board Member Ramos seconded a motion to approve the December financial statements as presented. The board voted "Aye" and the chair declared the motion passed. The meeting minutes reflect the motion and the unanimous voice vote; no roll-call vote counts were recorded in the transcript.
Finance staff said they will continue to enroll vendors in ACH, reduce printed checks, and monitor positive-pay alerts from the bank. The board accepted the financial statements with no further amendments.
Ending: The board approved the December financials. Staff emphasized continued work to move vendor payments to ACH and to use bank controls and vendor verification to reduce fraud risk.
