23 April 2019

Truth-In-Accounting: Don't Count On It

Not in Arizona Public Charter Schools where Arizona Republic reporter Craig Harris has uncovered and is now reporting on new investigations in charter schools' accounting practices. . . and not here in Mesa City Hall (audits or not) that have been raising alarms on this blog for a couple of years. That's your MesaZona  blogger's take-away on finances that are troublesome to say the least. 
At least Craig Harris has a team of reporters and other investigators he can work with to dig into the complex questionable financing and real estate deals.
26 Arizona charter schools just happen to use the same accountant. Now we know just a little more about one - American Leadership Academy that has over nine years grown to a dozen campuses with 8,354 students in Florence, Gilbert, Mesa, Queen Creek and San Tan Valley - from his investigative report yesterday:
26 charter schools have the same accountant,
but investigators say his work is woefully bad
The auditor of 26 Arizona charter schools faces state sanctions after his work for American Leadership Academy and another school was found to be "woefully below" standards.
An Arizona Board of Accountancy investigative panel last month concluded Joel Huber had not correctly performed audits and failed to provide certain disclosures related to ALA and another charter school.
ALA used Huber's audits from 2015 to 2017 to obtain $192 million in bonds to acquire property and build ALA schools, loan records show. ALA founder and former board Chairman Glenn Way made about $37 million on no-bid real estate deals associated with the schools.
The state investigation forced ALA to restate its fiscal 2017 audit, which disclosed new information on related-party transactions (insider business deals) involving Way, and the loan. 
The Accountancy Board did not identify the two Huber clients that received poor audits. The Arizona Republic obtained documents confirming ALA was one of the schools, but was unable to identify the other school. 
Way and Huber both declined to comment. . .
READ MORE > AZ Central 22 April 2019 
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Here in Mesa at this point-in-time it's too early to name real names, real charter schools, real owners and/or administrators, real real estate deals, real kick-backs or real contracts. . .
There must be something "in the water" here in Mesa.
What else might explain it??

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