COASTAL OBSERVER

Concerns about Georgetown County School District spending through debit card accounts have focused on waste rather than fraud.

“I don’t suspect any fraud,” said Bill Chaplin, a member of the county Republican Party’s executive committee, who outlined his review of the district’s procurement cards to GOP Club members last month.

But a district official had a different opinion of $3,684.20 in charges to a card from Georgetown Middle School last fall.

“This is a fraud,” Ray Pittman, the district’s procurement specialist, noted on a transfer form in February.

The funds were used for two $1,442.10 purchases at the Kennedy Center and an $800 purchase from the L.A. Clippers over two days in December. The money was refunded to the district.

The fact that the purchases were flagged by Wells Fargo, which provides banking services to the district, and couldn’t be reconciled with Georgetown Middle’s records shows that the procurement cards, or P-cards, are working as intended, said Kristi Kibler, the district’s public information officer.

The fraud wasn’t perpetrated by a district employee, she said. Wells Fargo investigated and couldn’t find the perpetrator.

“The bank could not determine how the number was compromised,” she said.

There were 212 cases of credit card or check fraud reported in South Carolina last year that cost residents $2.8 million, according to federal data.

Wells Fargo also flagged four other transactions on the Georgetown Middle P-card on a single day in December that didn’t go through. One was another L.A. Clippers charge for $600. Two were $764.95 charges to a Bahama Breeze restaurant in Orlando, Fla. The other was for an apparent gift card purchase at the J. Alexander’s restaurant chain for $822.50.

“We canceled the card,” Kibler said.

The school district posts its monthly P-card transactions online. The district started using the cards, which function like a debit card, in 2010 to facilitate small purchases by staff and streamline administration. They can’t be used for purchases over $2,500. 

The small purchases added up to $2.8 million last year, prompting School Board Members Scott DuBose and Eileen Johnson to meet with Superintendent Bethany Giles last month to get more information about the P-cards.

“That makes me feel better that Wells Fargo is on it,” DuBose said after learning of the fraudulent charges at Georgetown Middle. “I’m just hoping that we can reduce the number of P-cards drastically.”

An audit of the Richland One school district P-card program in 2022 found repeated violations of the district’s policy, such as purchases from blocked merchant categories and personal purchases. That district now makes public its monthly P-card statements showing which employees made purchases.

In response for a request for documents related to the fraudulent charges at Georgetown Middle, the district redacted the names of the card users.

DuBose and Johnson want to know why the district can’t provide that information in its online reports. 

Most of the school purchases are done by the bookkeepers, Kibler said.

“My husband has probably never seen a P-card,” she said, referring to Brad Kibler, who teaches social studies at Waccamaw High.

The reason for a purchase isn’t shown on the transparency report, but it is included in the monthly procurement card lot that each school and department submits to the district finance office.

The district spends an average of $11,000 a month at Walmart, according to Chaplin’s review. At Georgetown Middle last December, four of the seven legitimate charges were to Walmart for yearbook equipment, supplies and a microwave.

Those purchases and ones for student supplies and concession stand supplies were all accompanied by receipts. While it was Wells Fargo that notified the school of the three fraudulent charges – the bookkeeper informed the finance department, adding “ugh” to the email – those would have been caught in the school’s own reconciliation, Kibler said.

“Bookkeepers do their statements every month like you do at home,” she said. “We’re doing our own check of it.”

“You have to produce a receipt that lines up with the P-card,” she added.

The bookkeepers also review purchases to make sure none violate the P-card policy.

“They get training every year,” Kibler said.

She said she understands Chaplin’s concerns, and after the meeting between Giles, DuBose and Johnson, “we are considering their concerns, and making sure there are procedures in place.”