EPISD’s external auditor falling under scrutiny

Last year, an external auditor for the district was brought in to figure out how the cheating scheme survived. The Austin-based Weaver firm was contracted to do the investigation. Now the firm’s the one being scrutinized.

“Removal of these principles has been really a cause for chaos and alarm on the campuses,” said County Judge Veronica Escobar. Sheis echoing what parents teachers and students have been protesting for the past few days.

“I think the fundamental cause of concern is that, that audit and that firm is what is propelling this latest activity byEPISD and there’s a lot of us that don’t have a lot of faith in that firm because of the circumstances surrounding it,” said Escobar.

Andthere are several circumstancesEscobar’s talking about. One that caught her attention early in the hiring process of the Weaver firm was the discovery thatout of the nearly 600 vendors contacted for the forensic auditing job, Weaver was the only bidder. Escobarbelieves the district should have rebidd the contract, another issue, “What I’ve heard back from schools that have been interviewed is that the firm actually was uninterested in gathering the data and the documents that people inside the schools were trying to give them and that tells me if that,s true, that’s a faulty audit,” said Escobar.

Escobar also said the Weaver firm came with a hefty price tag.

“They won the bid with one price and ended up charging a significantly higher price,” said Escobar.

What started off as a half a million dollar audit for Bowie High school almost doubled whenEPISD chose to have a wider scale audit throughout the district.

“That taxpayers have paid for with our tax dollars $800,000, almost a million dollars for this audit,” said Escobar.

But what troubles Escobar the most, is the personnel changes that have stemmed from the investigation.

“The accused have not been allowed to see the document that is going to be used as evidence that they persued bad behavior,” said Escobar.

On Saturday, EPISD interim superintendent Vernon Butler released a letter stating:

“These personnel actions are being handled with great care and any action as a result will not be made hastily. There is a process, and the district is currently working with individuals affected to ensure that due process is followed.”

Since the audit from the Weaver firm isn’t finished, it hasn’t been made public.

Escobar toldABC-7 the district should push for the finalization of Weaver audit and look it over themselves.

“You should take that audit and first and foremost and see what is says and fully vet it and give the accused a chance to face their accuser give them an opportunity to see what is being said about them,” Escobar goes on to say, “I’m asking that the status quo be reinstated, reinstate those principles while the investigation and the due diligence happens.”

EPISDcontactedABC-7 lateSaturday night and officialssaid they will make the results of the Weaver audit publicby Monday evening.

EPISDwill also be holding a highly contested board meeting this coming Tuesday.