School Officials Spent Big On Lavish Hotels, Audit Finds

NEW YORK — New York City school officials frequently flouted rules in spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on lavish hotels, out-of-town trips and other travel costs last year, an audit released Wednesday shows.

City Comptroller Scott Stringer's office reviewed about $1 million of the Department of Education's more than $20 million in travel expenses from the 2017 fiscal year. About nine in every 10 payments — 93 percent — violated an internal policy, a directive from the comptroller's office, or both, the audit shows.

"When it comes to our schools, every single dollar counts," Stringer, a Democrat, said in a statement. "We can’t afford to waste dollars that should go to our kids and classrooms."

The DOE blew more than $233,000 to host meetings and other events at outside venues — including the tony Tarrytown House Estate in Westchester County — without bothering to see if any schools or other facilities could be used for free or on the cheap, the audit found.

And the department lost more than $60,000 in advance payments when the chancellor cancelled a student trip to Cuba because of "political turmoil," according to the audit.

Stringer's office made 16 recommendations to the DOE, including that it get proper justification for employees' out-of-town travel before approving payments and plan trips far enough ahead to avoid excess costs.

In a written response to the audit, the DOE said it at least partially agreed with all the recommendations and said it would make sure policies are followed by holding additional training. "We are also assessing the need for further changes and will continue to explore ways to improve our practices and procedures," wrote Lauren Siciliano, the department's deputy chief operating officer.

The audit found a range of problems with the DOE's travel spending, from overpaying vendors and incorrectly recording expenses to failing to solicit enough bids.

Nearly $15,000 of the expenses had no supporting documentation, including three charges totaling more than $2,800 at the sprawling, high-end Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville, Tennessee, the audit says.

The DOE did not prove it solicited the right number of bids for 11 expenses totaling more than $269,000, the audit says. That amount included nearly $100,000 for a "core curriculum showcase" hosted at a Downtown Brooklyn Marriott hotel.

The department also failed to properly justify nearly $43,000 worth of out-of-town travel, the audit found — including a five-day, $40,425 trip to the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2016. Auditors couldn't find documentation explaining what benefits that training program provided that staff could not have gotten otherwise, the report says.

Out-of-town training can be helpful if it comes at the right price, Mayor Bill de Blasio said, but "what we don’t want is money being spent that doesn’t need to be spent." The mayor indicated the improper spending may lead to some disciplinary action.

"I want to see a full accounting. I want to make sure money is used right," de Blasio, a Democrat, said at an unrelated news conference. "If anyone didn’t use their money right, there need to be consequences."

(Lead image: Photo from Shutterstock)