The Mississippi Department of Education has caught no small amount of grief from this website, the PEER Committee, and the State Auditor over how contracts are passed out to the favored few. Chief Operations Officer Dr. Felicia Gavin announced changes to how MDE does business in the following statement:
When Dr. Carey Wright, state superintendent of education, hired me to be the chief operations officer for the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) in February, she asked me to conduct a comprehensive review of the accounting and procurement offices at the department and recommend any necessary changes.
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| Dr. Gavin |
However, the internal controls at the MDE needed to be revamped to prevent accounting errors and to strengthen protocols for contractual services. I have worked over the last several months to tighten controls and to raise the level of accountability in the agency’s accounting practices.
Based on 25 years of experience in both the public and private sectors, I know what needs to take place to maintain compliance with state and federal laws, while ensuring that we hold to the highest standards and expectations in stewarding taxpayer dollars. I outlined the significant changes that have taken place in operations at the MDE to the Mississippi State Board of Education (SBE) at its Oct. 19 meeting.
One of my first recommendations was to hire a compliance officer to ensure that all state and federal laws and regulations were being applied fully and consistently and that the agency followed professional standards and accepted business practices. The compliance officer, who began in May, is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and is responsible for monitoring practices that will ensure the highest possible level of compliance.
The key areas of focus include implementing a Corrective Action Plan to address any audit findings, completing an internal control assessment, working with leadership and program offices to identify and monitor risks to the internal control system, performing random reviews of account reconciliations or documents to ensure funds are properly recorded, and working with the procurement and accounting staff to ensure compliance with the Mississippi Agency Accounting Policies and Procedures (MAAPP) as outlined by the Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration (DFA).
The MDE is committed to efficient procurement practices. In fact, under the SBE’s direction, the MDE has implemented a substantive policy regarding contract employees. We have eliminated the pool of service as a method of procurement. Key changes, which began July 1, include a request for application (RFA) for contracts between $5,000 and $75,000, and a RFA or Competitive Sealed Qualifications for contracts over $75,000.
All contracts over $50,000 still must be approved by the SBE, and all contracts in excess of $75,000 must be approved by Personal Service Contract Review Board (PSCRB)
In addition, we have developed a tool to assist SBE members in maintaining oversight of all contracts that exceed $5,000, including a detailed overview of each contract’s scope, amount and duration. This summary will be posted monthly following the SBE meetings on the MDE website for the public to view.
I’ve also made staff changes and reorganized the accounting office to establish clear lines of accountability. In May, I hired new accounting director, who has over 15 years of extensive accounting experience.
We requested approval from the State Personnel Board to establish a new Grants Management Department to provide oversight and accountability of all federal funds and management of all grants within the agency.
Several of the changes followed a fund-level financial audit and a compliance audit of selected federal programs for FY 2015-16. The audits, which were released in April, found significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the MDE’s program administration and accounting practices during 2015-16. As the MDE has previously reported, the audits cited nine findings that centered on the MDE’s lack of internal controls and monitoring procedures.
The MDE took those findings seriously and made immediate changes. We also take seriously the reports of the PEER Committee and the Office of the State Auditor (OSA).
The MDE has cooperated fully with the PEER staff and the OSA, making MDE staff available for questions and information and providing requested documentation when available. We will continue to do so.
We are reviewing the recommendations from PEER, and we will make adjustments as necessary to further strengthen the changes we have already put in place to operate efficiently, effectively and with complete transparency.
Felicia Gavin, Ph.D., is the chief operations officer at the Mississippi Department of Education. She has worked in Mississippi in state government and in the private sector.
21 comments:
The proof of the pudding is in the tasting. Let's see if the promised changes get rolled out, and how much relevant information gets put in the hands of the taxpayers.
The proposed changes are needed, and I applaud KF for his efforts to highlight the need for them across government.
Those $49,000 contracts are killing us--
Hiring more of her friends I see. That won't fix the problem.
Let me see if I understand this.
MDE hired two more people to make sure the MDE does not give out any more buddy contracts.
Wasn't that something that was not supposed to happen in the first place?
Now we have at least two more people on the payroll that are supposed to do the job that others have been paid to do in the past but failed to do their job.
Just doing what should have been done all along!!! "We're from the Government, and we're here to help ya'll. A bunch of bullshit.
Performance bonuses coming!
3...2..1..
First, let's acknowledge that the first thing this very-experienced woman (twenty five years of experience in public and private sector) did was blame departmental ills on somebody else, citing her contention that PEER had already said there deficiencies.
Second, let's acknowledge the fact that this woman was hired (friendly hire) ten months ago and it took this long to roll out a mediocre, simple, boiler-plate accounting 101 statement of expectations.
I'm reminded of a coach, hired last year, who is just now a year later meeting with the fan base to announce, "I've been coaching for a long time, folks. I've taken a 13 month look at our defense and have concluded that we need two new coordinators in order to move beyond this 0-11 record."
After working for MDE for almost 20 years, I have my doubts that these proposed changes will yield positive results. Many no-change changes in the past have not made substantial improvements to the MDE bureaucracy.
When I went to work for MDE, I naively thought that hard work, positive results, and the introduction of money-saving strategies would lead to a salary upgrade and promotion. That didn't happen. Promotions and raises are portioned out at MDE based on who it is for or who wants it for someone.
Integrity is hard to find in our society these days. It is particularly hard to find in bureaucracies. My experience with MDE has been that they get their tails in a crack, they quite vocally and publically announce reforms, the heat subsides, and they resume business as usual. Rinse and repeat.
Remember, at MDE:
PROCEDURE and PERCEPTION always trump PERFORMANCE and PROGRESS.
Waste no time firing this woman. She's been there nine months and a lot of this crap continued to take place on HER watch. And she insists, "We had already put a plan in place to clean all this crap up before PEER found out how incompetent we are and how illegally we operate".
So they hired this woman to correct the financial mismanagement. So, she HIRES another highly paid advisor to straighten this out. When do they stop hiring levels upon levels of people for the purpose of "saving money"?
The solution to bad government is always more government. Gotta love how that works.
Typical government. Hire two people to help you stop doing something. In the real world, you just stop doing that thing. In government, you hire more people.
Who cares if a program works as longs as it has a catchy acronym? I think these people start with the acronym first and work backwards. Silly
Mississippi Accountability System for Government Information and Collaboration (MAGIC)
Her Phd damn sure isn't in cost reduction.
Typical government employee.
The bottom line to all this monkey-bidness is that Dr. Wright escapes as slick as an oiled seal in a Florida aquarium. She sits at home sipping a brandy, smiling at the fact that she hired somebody to correct the problem and that's all she's responsible (and accountable) for. Where else but in the public sector does that mentality survive? As was earlier suggested, nothing matters but the process. Outcomes are not important.
To say that MAGIC has "operational deficiencies" is the understatement of the century. It is a complete disaster.
Accountability begins with accurate attendance records. In Mississippi, you can miss 60 days of school and still be promoted or graduate. Until they really start digging and interviewing staff/faculty, nothing will change, because if they actually do find out the truth.....those federal dollars won't flow so smoothly. Biggest scam in state's history. Non-attendance is the main reason Mississippi is last in academic performance. FACT. They're too scared to even track it.
Years ago when MAEP was passed, the legislation did not include a uniform definition of what constitutes ADA (Average Daily Attendance). One school district may count a student present for the day if he/she attends half the school day. Another district may count a student absent for the day if he/she attends only half the school day. And there were numerous other ways that districts defined 'absent' and 'present.' Yet MDE accepted ADA data from the school districts as the basis for application of the MAEP funding formula. How stupid.
Speaking of stupid, the only thing magic about MAGIC is if it ever functions properly. The state purchased this software and spent five years trying to make it function for Mississippi's purposes. Although there were still bugs in the system, DFA rolled it out, mandating that state agencies use it. I attended several MAGIC training classes; they were as useless as t**ts on a boar hog. The public sector software's maker, SAP, has been sued in California and Texas for fraud, misrepresentation, and lack of functionality. (Google it for yourself). Yet Mississippi has spent well over $100 million dollars on this unnecessarily-complicated system that still does not meet our needs. Several DFA higher-ups who were instrumental in this software's purchase decided to retire after MAGIC went into effect. Also, numerous other good MDE employees retired or resigned so they would not have to deal with it.
When is the State of Mississippi going to see intelligent, practical leadership from its elected officials and bureaucrats? Is there no one left with honor and integrity?
The fact that MDE has put new guidelines in place does not mean that they will follow them .
The questionable contracts were signed off by Dr. Wright. The contracts given to her friends from Maryland were signed by her. Until she is replaced, the status quo will continue. Dr. Gavin, can make all the changes she wants. Dr. Wright is still her boss and signs her paychecks.
$835 million in federal money passes through the department with no oversight or evidence of outcomes, mostly into the hands of local school districts. And just wait until Mr. Auditor starts digging into so-called "higher" education universities and the community colleges.....whoa nellie. The corruption will turn your hair white. Hope Pickering and his boys are ready to play hard ball.
Put her ass in jail! What's so damned difficult about that to understand? It's not like she's a foreign delegate to the United Nations. Put that little knot-head in an orange jumpsuit. She actually thinks that can't be done.
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