Greece Central School District

An ongoing investigation into the Greece School Board's handling of its 2001 capital improvement project came full circle Tuesday when forensic auditors presented their findings to the school board.

School board members called for the in-depth investigation of the Greece Central School District's 2001 capital improvement project after several deficiencies in construction were found in the schools.

Auditors found "notable problems" with 34 of the 38 contractors. Those problems include markups of 10 to 15 percent on expenses, exceeding contract agreements.

The report also found excessive approvals of spending. An example: charging $10,000 for a drinking fountain that normally costs about $150.

"I don't know that I can assume it's hundreds of thousands of dollars in misused funds," Greece superintendent Steve Achramovitch said. "I think there are some areas where we look at the expenditures being a little excessive, perhaps inappropriate at times."

Overcharges cited in the board meeting also included questionable travel and expense reports from former superintendent Steven Walts, specifically during his transition to Virginia after leaving the Greece School District.

"It's interesting to note that he was hired in Virginia with a start date of July 1, although he was allowed to physically arrive on July 11 of 2005. So technically he was employed by two school districts between July 1 and July 9 of 2005," said Jim Marasco, Eldredge, Fox & Poretti.

The board asked Jim Marasco from the accounting firm to limit his comments to his report during the meeting. Since the audit is under legal review, Marasco was not able to provide a comment to R News.

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