CPS Inspector General Finds $800K of Questionable Spending

Including charges for alcohol, parties, and other "gratuitous expenditures."

by Amanda Griffin-Johnson

The Chicago Public Schools’ inspector general found $822,000 in questionable spending under former school board presidents Michael Scott and Rufus Williams. The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

The expenses, Inspector General James M. Sullivan wrote in a report released Monday, undercut the board’s message that the cash-strapped school system needs to be responsible with taxpayers’ money.

“The board allows for double reimbursements, the purchase of alcohol with public funds, catered lunches, publicly funded holiday parties and other gratuitous expenditures,” Sullivan wrote. “The message that budget cuts need to be made rings hollow when the board itself uses CPS funds irresponsibly.”

Questionable spending items included:

• $3,000 to a surveillance company to have certain administrative offices “swept for electronic eavesdropping devices.”
• $12,624 for party expenses
• $92,900 worth of donations to not-for-profits on which Scott or a family member of Scott’s at some point “served as a member of the board of directors.”
• $979 for a one-night stay by Williams in a New York City hotel when he visited the Harlem Children’s Zone
• $1,734 limousine tab during a Washington trip
• $1,978 on alcoholic beverages

You can read the full article from the Chicago Sun-Times here. Check out our transparency website, IllinoisOpenGov.org, for searchable databases of state expenditures and school vendor data.