DENVER (KDVR) — The Adams County School District 14 Board of Education took a serious look at the payment methods to an external management company, MGT Consulting, LLC, and is now releasing the findings of a forensic audit Thursday.
Specifically, the board notes specific payments to MGT were “potentially duplicative of services that were reasonably expected to have been provided to Adams 14 under the terms of the agreement.”
This comes after Adams 14 fired MGT Consulting, and denied a request by the State Board of Education to find a new outside manager. The district asked to look for a replacement, but the state board temporarily denied that request pending research and additional information. A hearing is expected for April.
Adams 14 said MGT, was not working in the best interest of the district. The Adam’s County District Attorney’s Office was investigating the forensic audit conducted into MGT’s conduct with the district claiming questionable financial, instructional, ethical and legal actions.
The district was recently notified by the District Attorney that his office will not be reviewing the audit further, which likely means the DA won’t file charges for criminal action. As a result, the district is now openly discussing the audit conducted by Eide Bailly, LLP.
FOX31 received the following statement from the Executive Vice President of MGT:
“Today’s press conference is the latest in a series of charades from Adams 14. This started last summer, when a consultant-for-hire produced a report supporting MGT’s and then completely reversed his own recommendation to meet the district’s narrative. Now Adams 14 and their politician-turned-lawyer is talking about a forensic audit in which the auditor never interviewed the district’s own finance staff or the staff of MGT, against which the district has lobbed baseless accusations. This is all part of an effort to distract from the State Review Panel’s report next month, and the local board’s history of underperformance. It’s past time for the district to focus on the actual work of serving students and families in Adams 14.”
– Eric Parish, Executive Vice President, MGT
You can watch a news conference releasing the results of the audit on FOX31 NOW in the player above.