Richland One’s mismanagement and incompetence leads to $31 million illegal procurement
The South Carolina State Inspector General (SIG) spent the last 6 months investigating Richland One’s processes and management of the Vince Ford Early Learning Center (VFELC) project.
The results of the investigation, released yesterday, weren’t surprising: While the Board’s funding of the VFELC was permissible, “the District’s procurement was unauthorized or illegal per State law/regulation, and that substantive construction activities occurred absent requisite permit(s).”
How did we get here?
In December 2022, the Richland One board of commissioners voted (5-2) to reallocate $31 million from the general fund to build a 71,000-square-foot “state-of-the-art” facility on Rawlinson and Caughman Roads in Lower Richland, with the capacity to serve 312 children. The plans for the facility included offering a full-day, full-year program for children as young as six weeks old up to five years old. The State Department of Education Office of Facilities denied permits for the project clarifying that the building’s designated use as an early learning and family services center would not qualify as a K-12 school and instead place it under jurisdiction of the Department of Social Services. Richland One pressed on with the project, breaking ground in February 2023 despite not having a valid permit for the project from either entity. State Rep. Heather Bauer and State Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver requested the inspector general step in when it came to light that the project was proceeding without permits. The worksite has sat idle since January 2024 awaiting results of the investigation.
Why does it matter?
Richland One has violated the public trust and its fiduciary duty to use tax dollars to educate the district’s 21,000+ students. Highlights from the IG’s report include:
- “[T]he District’s failures and mismanagement produced a $31 million unauthorized or illegal procurement.”
- “As of May 2024, the district had spent almost $5.6 million on the project, which went to supplies, supervision, landscaping, foundation work, and other construction expenditures.”
- “The SIG determined that the District’s mismanagement of the VFELC construction project resulted in the Stop Work Order being issued by the Richland County building official,” with “shutdown costs totaling a minimum of $352,078 in waste.”
- “[T]he SIG determined that the District’s circumvention of FOIA ultimately resulted in a waste to taxpayers of a minimum of $10,462.”
- “The district awarded a contract to two different contractors, something that state Department of Procurement Services officials said they’d never heard of before, and which put the two contractors in an ‘unworkable situation’.”
- “The SIG assessed that the District’s failures put the contractor’s license at risk of adverse action by the South Carolina Contractor’s licensing board.”
- “An education department spokesman said in a statement that the report ‘validated’ the department’s concern about the project, which it says should never have begun without the proper permit.”
Read the full IG report here.
Negligent in following state law, deflecting blame for mistakes and shortcomings, disregard for the waste of public funds, and refusal to accept responsibility for the failures on this project.
