Delaware State Auditor Tom Wagner’s office just released an audit investigation of Sussex Technical School District. Construction deals that did not meet Delaware State Code began with a bus parking lot for almost $206,000 and continued with over $4 million dollars with the same company. Wagner’s report, which can be seen below, found this to be very egregious. Common Sense Solutions, a construction company owned by Michael Horsey, made a whirlwind of profit from contracts that were not procured by the State of Delaware as required by the law.
The report, in its conclusion, stated the following:
CSS turned their original HS Bus Entrance CM contract of $205,699 into nearly $4,000,000 in payments by piggybacking the HS HVAC Systems, HS Instructional Shops, and District Office Renovations projects onto the original CM contract with Sussex Tech as well as providing other services to the District that were not subject to any contract or required State approvals.
Any attempts at resolving the ongoing situation by district employees was met with firm resistance according to the report:
Through various interviews with employees at Sussex Tech, it has been stated that each time someone began questioning the payments made to CSS, they were pushed out of the decision-making and payment approval processes.
Once again we have a Delaware school district or charter school where serious financial abuse and conflicts of interest are a higher priority than the education of children. Once again, why are we NOT getting annual audits of ALL school districts as required by Delaware State Code?
The Season Of Myths 