POLITICIANS HAVE been given assurances that checks are in place to prevent a repeat of a fraud case which saw an administrator scam £30,000 from a Dundee school.
Barbara Donald was jailed for eight months in July for embezzling the cash from Baldragon Academy over a three-year period.
Her scam was only discovered in September 2010 when a travel firm contacted the head teacher after a cheque for a school trip to France bounced.
Mother-of-two Ms Donald later admitted she had taken the money to pay off debts of £25,000.
The education department’s finance section found that Baldragon staff had failed to follow some procedures.
A report by the city’s education chief entitled the Processes and Systems in Place for the Management of Cash within Schools went before councillors at a meeting of the scrutiny committee last week.
It sets out details of a series of regular checks into school accounts by officials, including financial monitoring visits.
The aim of the document is to “provide members with an assurance on the processes and systems in place”, according to Dundee City Council’s director of education Michael Wood.
He said: “Following a formal investigation into the misappropriation of income and cash at Baldragon Academy and the subsequent internal audit report presented to the Scrutiny Committee in August 2012, the members requested that a further report be brought back to a future meeting which provided assurances on the processes and systems in place for the management of cash within schools along with the measures in place to check these arrangements.”
The report says the education department has financial guidance available to all staff which covers school funds and banking procedures.
The department has also formalised financial management training to include refresher courses.
Mr Wood said: “All financial management training is carried out by finance professionals within the education department and is available to all relevant teaching and non-teaching staff within educational establishments.”
The education chief’s report set out a scheme of financial monitoring visits to schools which are carried out by accountants annually.
Senior school staff are present at these meetings, according to the document.
Mr Wood said: “Opportunities are taken at this visit to discuss any concerns, issues they have with their finances or financial procedures.”
Self-Assessment Audits (SAAs) have also been introduced, which will give school staff the opportunity to flag up “areas of risk”.
Mr Wood added: “It is proposed in future to have a rolling programme of SAAs with every educational establishment being audited every two years.”
Before Barbara Donald was jailed, Dundee Sheriff Court heard how the “well respected and trusted” administrator had racked up debts of over £25,000 and had taken the cash from the school to try to pay off interest accrued from “pay day loans”.
Theo Findlay, defending, said Donald had been a “conscientious and diligent” employee but was “hopeless with money”.
He said: “She simply was not up to it and it was beyond her competence.”
Mr Findlay said Donald experienced financial difficulties after the birth of her second child and had taken out “pay day loans”, which “made the situation worse”.
Mr Findlay said that Donald had £80,000 in a council pension fund and that the authority had the power to deduct £30,000 from this to pay a compensation order to the school.
pswindon@thecourier.co.uk