Community College District overpaid for technology services, report finds
Investigation triggered by whistleblower
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Los Angeles Community College District officials significantly overpaid for computer software, and an employee was caught illegally selling district transit passes on the web, according to two new inspector general reports released today.
The district was paying nearly 79 percent more for Global Star Technology to obtain the software than by going directly to the manufacturer—a markup of about $13,000, LACCD Inspector General Christine Marez said in her report.
That investigation was triggered after a whistleblower reported the district was being charged “outrageous and unacceptable” prices.
An additional report released today disclosed that a part-time LACCD employee illegally counterfeited and sold Metro transit passes paid for the district on Craigslist.
The investigations are the latest in a series stemming from scathing allegations of financial mismanagement at the nation’s largest community college district.
A Los Angeles Times investigation in February showed district officials had little oversight of $5.7 billion in bond money approved by voters in 2001 to retrofit unsafe buildings, add new technology and reduce crowded classrooms.
In August, State Controller John Chiang released a detailed audit that found the district mishandled more than $140 million in bond funds by failing to keep proper records, spending money outside voter-approved guidelines and ignoring its own procurement rules.
The district has spent about $3 billion of the bond money on new academic buildings, sports facilities, administrative buildings, parking structures and other buildings.
LACCD staff told investigators that the computer software was marked up in part because of Global Star Technology shipping and storage costs. The report found the claims to be false.
In addition to overpaying for computer software, the inspector general’s report found wider problems in the way bond money is spent on goods and services. Language relating to sales taxes was changed in four out of five contracts inspected without approval from the district’s lawyers or procurement staff.
The contract discrepancies led Marez to recommend a full audit of the college’s “master agreements.”
Part-time LACCD employee Arthur Amirkhanian was found guilty of burglary and grand theft for selling the Metro “I-TAP” cards. Bond money was used to subsidize the cards in order to give faculty and students a way to get around while campus parking facilities were under construction or being used as construction staging areas.
Amirkhanian was sentenced to 36 months of probation.
By Richie Duchon | City News Service
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—The Los Angeles Community College District mismanaged more than $140 million in bond funds by failing to keep proper records, spending money outside voter-approved guidelines and ignoring its own procurement rules, according to a state audit released today.
When the much-anticipated opening of Phase 1 of the Exposition Light Rail Line occurs on Saturday, patrons will experience a fast, convenient and comfortable ride from downtown Los Angeles to Culver City, and vice versa, without the dreaded inconvenience of Los Angeles transportation—traffic.
Whether the destination is Downtown, the Staples Center, the University of Southern California, the County Natural History Museum, or the Crenshaw District, the Exposition Rail Line will put you right in the mix.
Los Angeles Southwest College (LASC) looks partially like an experimental yard for bomb explosions and a thriving, healthy and renovated school in the modern age. In this convoluted scenario, what is striking, however, is that no work seems to be getting done amid the stripped buildings, barricaded web netting and cracked concrete.
The Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) is holding a series of public hearings to obtain input from citizens on proposed service changes to metro bus lines.
Locally the transit agency is proposing the following:
• Reduce the frequency of Line 40 and add larger capacity buses
• Modify route 620 to serve First Street and Mott Avenue
• Assign smaller capacity buses to route 710 and increase the frequency
• Put smaller business on Line 740 and increase frequency
Ward Connerly, the African American former University of California trustee who vehemently opposed affirmative action, is now fighting charges of mismanaging donations to an organization he founded, for personal gain.
