Curmudgeon's Corner
cur-mud-geon: anyone who hates hypocrisy and pretense and has the temerity to say so; anyone with the habit of pointing out unpleasant facts in an engaging and humorous manner
MATC Grabs the Front Page Again
MATC is back in the news and, as you might suspect, it isn’t good news. The Journal Sentinel report this morning tells of a former employee (she resigned on September 16th after going on Administrative Leave on August 31st) who is accused of using an MATC credit card for personal items. The former employee’s name is Kristin A. Seimits and she is under investigation for using an MATC credit card to purchase something in excess of $100,000 worth of items. She was reportedly to be paid some $90,000+ this school year for being a ‘procurement director’ for MATC.
The items included: an automobile, an RV camper, a Yamaha piano, 10 flat screen TVs, 7 laptop computers, 8 desktop computers, 13 iPads, 5 cameras, a gas range, a refrigerator, a freezer, a dishwasher, a microwave, a washer and dryer, 3 vacuum cleaners, a pizza oven, a sink and faucet, etc., etc., etc.
Investigators searched her home recently and seized close to 90 items, so it appears this is more than an allegation.
The estimated value is over $100,000, and MATC says it has filed a claim with its insurance carrier to recover from this loss.
This all came to light when the MATC district board requested an audit of the procurement records.
It would seem that there was no oversight mechanism in place to prevent such an occurrence, or if there was some kind of oversight process, it obviously didn’t work very well.
Now, after the proverbial cows are out of the barn, the MATC President is going to propose “a series of purchasing reforms, new restrictions on credit card use and additional safeguards”.
Doesn’t it seem that a multi-million dollar a year operation would be run a bit more tightly? Is this simply another indication of a flippant approach to the use of taxpayer dollars and the fees paid by students? Who will be punished for permitting this to happen? Will it be a serious punishment or will it be a slap on the hand?
MATC needs a top-to-bottom review by an independent outside audit organization and that needs to start yesterday. And, then, the whole state technical college system needs to be re-structured to give taxpayers more of a voice. Un-elected officials don’t have quite the pressure to reform that seems to be needed.
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