The Richmond School Board is gearing up to conduct audits of the division, but has no internal auditors to conduct them at the moment. 

The Board’s former director of internal audits, Douglass Graeff, left the position in May.

The reason for Graeff’s departure is unknown. Graeff told The Richmonder in an email that he cannot speak on his departure “based on my agreement with RPS.” Board Chair Shavonda Fernandez (9th District) cited RPS policy, which doesn't allow officials to comment on personnel matters.

As of Thursday evening, Graeff is still listed on the Richmond Public Schools website. Fernandez said the job was posted as soon as Graeff left, and the School Board is offering a salary of up to $171,192. 

The internal auditor’s office is one of the two departments overseen by the School Board, in addition to the clerk, and is in charge of reviewing the division’s finances and operations to ensure compliance.

Last spring, Graeff found that many bus drivers were being paid two hours overtime for after-school runs, even if they had not worked the full 40 hours that week or if the run was less than two hours. He estimated RPS paid bus drivers $1.8 million in overtime in fiscal year 2024. The audit resulted in the Richmond schools’ year-long disagreement with LiUNA – the union representing the bus drivers – and temporary dismissal of five bus drivers for an alleged unlawful striking, which occurred around the same time as Graeff’s exit. 

Graeff also found earlier this year that the division’s fraud and abuse tip line was not checked in more than a year, and the account had more than 700 unopened emails. 

The office is also supposed to consist of a junior auditor, in addition to the director. That position was previously at risk of being eliminated from the division’s budget due to its vacancy before board members demanded to keep it. It is still vacant, and will be posted after the Board hires the director. 

Fernandez said the board is actively reviewing potential candidates for the director position. 

Graeff’s departure came in the same month as the dismissal of the city’s Inspector General, Jim Osuna, who was in charge of investigating waste, fraud and abuse at City Hall. Osuna left under an undisclosed agreement.

Tackling this year’s audit plans

Members of the Board’s Finance and Audit Committee met in late August to review an internal audit plan for the division. The plan contains 16 areas that are required or requested by RPS administrators to audit, including accounting, transportation, construction, and human resources. It also includes the division’s school activity funds, which has an annual mandate to be audited.

School Board Vice Chair and Chair of the committee Matthew Percival (1st District) said the funds are going to be audited by a third-party firm. Ferndandez told The Richmonder that the firm is Cherry Beckaert and the division is paying $92,500 for RPS audits the firm conducts this fiscal year. 

“RPS has always maintained external, contracted audit support in addition to the internal audit role,” she said. “Auditing remains a vital safeguard for RPS and taxpayers, and a source of continuous feedback on internal efficiency and improvement.”

The Finance and Audit Committee is still moving forward with the audit plan, and aims to include the auditor in conversations once they’re hired.

The plan was last updated in December last year, before some of the new Board members took office. It also contains requests that come from former employees like former Chief Operating Officer Dana Fox and ousted Chief Talent Officer Maggie Clemmons. Fernandez said that any names on the plan are simply references to the owners at the time it was written. 

“Once hired, this will be handed over to the Senior Auditor for follow-up and implementation,” she said. “Should the new director of audit services recommend changes, those would be passed on to the full board for recommendations and approval.”

Still, the Board members discussed potentially prioritizing items on the audit plan where they feel there may be issues.

Ali Faruk (3rd District) said he’s interested in seeing a financial review of third-party contractors that provide health services like nursing, speech, occupational and physical therapies. 

“I don’t know that we ever really do any significant backwards-looking review of these contracts,” he said. 

Stephanie Rizzi (5th District) said she wants the Board to do a “long overdue” comprehensive personnel audit on RPS employees to ensure that the division doesn’t have redundancies in job descriptions.

No merger with city auditor

Members talked about conversations that occurred about a potential auditing collaboration, or sharing resources in auditing between RPS and the city.

Percival said he was told by the city officials that such a possibility was off the table. The other board members also appeared hesitant to do so.

“We should have first a crack at all that information and the opportunity to right it or address it first,” Emmett Jafari (8th District) said. 

“I would not agree to anything unless, until, we have our auditor in place,” Rizzi said. 

City Councilor Kenya Gibson (3rd District) also made the point clear a few days later during the joint meeting of RPS and City Council, where she called for a thorough audit of RPS’ budget and filling the vacant audit positions, but without the help of the city.

“I know that there has been some discussion about some shared audit services between the schools and the city, and I just wanted to note, I believe that these should be independent bodies,” she said. 

Faruk expressed frustration during the audit committee meeting with people who believe RPS does not handle its money transparently, noting that their budget documents are readily available on the RPS website and BoardDocs, a software the division uses to publish meetings and documents. 

“I don’t take seriously people who work in government and have been in government for a long time saying they don't know where schools’ money are going,” Faruk said.  

Contact Reporter Victoria A. Ifatusin at vifatusin@richmonder.org