Richmond School Board neglected fraud tiplines, left email unread for at least 10 years
VENN
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- The Richmond School Board's tiplines for fraud, waste and abuse within the district were neglected by its audit services department, with a whistleblower report finding that hundreds of emails were left unread for at least ten years.
During a scheduled meeting of the school board's Finance and Audit Committee on Jan. 28, committee members were briefed on this whistleblower report by Doug Graeff, the Director of Internal Audit.
Graeff was appointed in Oct. 2023 to manage the school board's Audit Services department. This report was a part of his efforts to "gain an understanding and appreciation for the fraud, waste and abuse efforts and responsibilities" associated with his department.
Complaints of fraud, waste and abuse are defined within the scope of the school board's audit services as complaints about things like theft, abuse of authority, corruption and bribery, per Richmond Public Schools' (RPS) webpage on Fraud, Waste and Abuse.
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"We take all complaints and reports seriously and will make every effort to investigate the reports, according to the applicable laws, codes, policies or regulations," reads a statement placed just below the provided fraud, waste and abuse phone number and email address.
However, according to the report, that phone line and email account -- as well as the department's "P Drive" -- were found to have been significantly neglected for years.
How neglected were these tiplines?
According to the report, the phone line had not been maintained for "over a year" and the password had to be reset in order to access it.
While the report states that "the seven voicemail messages were either non-actionable or unintelligible," no other details were provided, such as how many total missed calls there were or further explanation of what "non-actionable," in this instance, means.
Since this discovery, the voicemail function on the phone line has been deactivated and all calls are now forwarded to Graeff's cell phone. As of the time of reporting, the Fraud, Waste and Abuse webpage still directs callers to leave a voicemail.
Regarding the email account, it was found with over 700 unread emails dating back to 2014 -- meaning some had been left unopened for at least 10 years. The report states that "most of those emails were spam," but a specific number is not given.
Of the emails that were not spam, "approximately 30 emails in excess of a year old [were found to have] failed to detail a substantive issue or were related to other areas than fraud, waste or abuse." No further breakdown of the content of emails, specifically, was provided in the report.
According to the report, the email account "has since been brought current" and it is now monitored daily by Graeff.
In a statement provided to 8News, school board member Shavonda Dixon provided some additional details:
"Both [the phone line and email account] have been up to speed since mid-2024," Dizon stated in an email. "Additionally, of the unread messages, fewer than 10 percent were legitimate claims in need of investigation."
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The "P Drive" -- seemingly a shared drive used by the audit services department -- was found to be "scattered," with case files "in no particular customary order," per the report.
"As best as could be determined, there were cases started and apparently dropped, as no substantive issues were formally reported," the report states. "A proper set of structured files was developed and put in place within the department P Drive."
Additionally, since these discoveries were made, a "case intake form" was developed, as well as an "Excel-based tracking log." They are designed to help audit services keep track of cases and summarize reported issues.
What kind of complaints were there?
According to the report, after the tiplines were "cleaned up," a total of 70 complaints were extracted between the whistleblower email account, phone line and P Drive as of Dec. 31, 2024.
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The subject of the complaints varies wildly. They include allegations about sex offenders accessing a school, accusations of teachers using cocaine on social media and claims about the mistreatment and confinement of children in schools.
"None were [actionable] as a fraud, waste or abuse matters as either the reported issue was insufficiently detailed or the matter was not related to fraud, waste or abuse," the report states.
The Fraud, Waste and Abuse webpage states that those who make complaints are "encouraged to leave [their] contact information to enable [audit services] to gather or clarify information as needed." The report does not clarify whether or not attempts were made to contact those involved in the complaints described as "insufficiently detailed."
In addition to classifying reports as "insufficiently detailed" and "not related to fraud, waste or abuse," some of these reports are labeled "too old to pursue" -- seemingly indicating that they perhaps would have qualified as a valid complaint if received sooner.
While the report listed the year the complaint was made in a few cases, time information was not included for 65 of the 70 complaints.
The complaints are listed as follows:
Complaints with "insufficient details," not pursued
- Two complaints from 2020 alleging "misappropriation SAF's," no action taken
- One complaint from 2020 alleging "a food distribution theft issue," marked "too old to pursue"
- One complaint alleging RPS vehicles were being used for "personal trips and errands," no action taken
Complaints considered "unrelated," sent to other departments
- 41 complaints making allegations of hate speech surrounding the attempted assassination of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, "emanating from an RPS teacher social media posting," sent to Human Resources (HR)-Talent
- Two complaints from 2020, alleging a child being "intentionally placed in a 'better' district," not sent to another department as it was marked "too old to pursue"
- One alert from the city on "an attempted 'phishing attack' on RPS," sent to Information Technology (IT)
- One complaint about "a sex offender possibly gaining access to a school (awaiting support)," sent to Security
- One complaint alleging an RPS teacher "snort[ed] cocaine in a social media clip," sent to HR-Talent
- One complaint regarding a child allegedly "being placed for too long in a 'restorative room,'" sent to education chief
- One complaint about a substitute teacher allegedly making racist comments on social media, sent to HR-Talent
- One complaint from a parent alleging their child was called "a racial epithet," sent to education chief
- Three complaints from parents alleging their children were mistreated, sent to education chief
- One complaint about a bus driver who allegedly was "exhibiting poor driving skills," sent to Transportation
- One complaint from a parent reporting possible food poisoning, sent to School Nutritional Services
- One complaint from a parent saying "bus pick-up time was always late," sent to Transportation
- Three complaints of "academic administrative issues" reported by a parent, sent to education chief
- One complaint from a parent about a conflict between a student, a teacher and Child Protective Services (CPS), sent to Elementary Education
- One complaint from a "floater" alleging a hostile work environment, sent to HR-Talent
- One complaint alleging an elementary school teacher "acted poorly" on social media, sent to HR-Talent
- One complaint alleging a teacher exhibited "poor social media behavior," sent to HR-Talent
- One complaint alleging a Blackwell employee disclosed personal student data, sent to education chief
- One complaint simply called "Internet Bullying" in the report, sent to education chief
- One complaint simply called "Residency Fraud" in the report, sent to education chief
- One complaint regarding "half-way house to close to Dogwood-Binford," sent to security
The report added that whistleblower status reports will be provided "on a semi-annual basis," with the next one set for "mid-2025."
What action is being taken to prevent further neglect?
After Graeff's presentation during the Jan. 28 meeting, the committee "concurred that the report could be received by the Board for information at a meeting work session," per the draft minutes of that meeting. A specific date was not given and Dixon did not provide a date when 8News asked.
"It’s important to note that Internal Audit is a regular process for a healthy, functioning organization," Dixon said in her statement. "The ultimate goal is to ensure funds are well-spent, inform decision-making, and create efficiencies. The tipline is a starting point, but conducting an audit doesn’t automatically mean that fraud, waste, or abuse has taken place — it’s the method by which an organization gets insight into what’s happening and what needs to work better."
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In addition to the actions already mentioned -- meaning the forwarding of calls to Graeff's cell phone, the daily monitoring of the email account and the implementation of tracking procedures -- the Richmond School Board will consider updates to its Fraud Management Policy "this spring," according to Dixon.
A draft of that updated policy was reviewed by the Finance and Audit Committee on Feb. 10.
In her statement, Dixon expressed her appreciation for this audit and for the actions of the previous school board. The Nov. 2024 election shuffled multiple seats, meaning the school board that is reviewing this audit was not the school board that served while the tipline neglect took place.
"As a new Board, we're proud of the work done by our predecessors to prioritize an independent auditor, and committed to getting the appropriate frame around this important function," Dixon said. "We’re pleased to have made good progress so far in creating a rigorous structure, including regular Internal Audit summaries and monthly updates to the Finance & Audit Committee. We look forward to continued growth in this regard."
Notably, in that same Feb. 10 meeting, Graeff made a presentation where he shared that, during 2024, the Finance and Audit Committee only met 4 times -- despite having 14 meetings scheduled. This was due to "lack of quorum," or lacking attendance.
A plan for how to tackle such an issue going forward was not provided in the presentation.
