MEDIA, PA — Pennsylvania Auditor General Timothy L. DeFoor on Wednesday, October 28, released an audit finding that the Delaware County Intermediate Unit spent more than $300,000 in public funds on executive training trips and catered meetings during fiscal years 2023 and 2024, while inadequate financial records prevented auditors from verifying compliance with state purchasing requirements.
The performance audit identified four findings involving procurement documentation, contract oversight, purchasing controls, and spending on travel and food. Auditors issued 21 recommendations aimed at strengthening financial accountability at the agency, which provides educational services to students across 15 Delaware County school districts.
The expenditures included nearly $40,000 for seven senior administrators to attend leadership training in Orlando, Florida, alongside another intermediate unit. The trip included a Universal Studios event featuring rides on two attractions, a five-course dinner and an open bar.
DCIU also spent nearly $14,000 on a team-building retreat in Annapolis, Maryland, that included a four-and-a-half-hour cruise on the Chesapeake Bay.
An additional approximately $250,000 in taxpayer funds went toward dinners at monthly board meetings and food and refreshments for routine staff meetings, according to the audit.
The spending occurred during a period when intermediate units statewide received nearly $2 billion in state tax funding. More than $83 million went to DCIU during the two fiscal years examined.
“DCIU gets most of its revenue from taxpayers to provide services to our children and our communities,” DeFoor stated. “Right now, what we are seeing is unacceptable.”
Beyond the expenditures, auditors identified deficiencies in the agency’s financial controls that limited their ability to determine whether purchasing practices complied with Pennsylvania’s Public School Code, state regulations and DCIU’s internal policies.
The agency failed to maintain adequate procurement records, including documentation of contracts and purchase approvals. Missing records prevented auditors from verifying compliance with purchasing requirements.
Auditors also found insufficient documentation of contract monitoring, limiting their ability to assess whether DCIU effectively oversaw contractors and verified the delivery of goods and services.
A separate finding involved purchases below the competitive bidding threshold. Inadequate supporting documentation prevented auditors from determining whether those transactions complied with applicable procurement requirements.
The fourth finding concerned the absence of sufficient internal guidance governing leadership training, retreats and food purchases for meetings. Auditors concluded that the deficiencies increased the risk of excessive or questionable expenditures.
The findings identify weaknesses in documentation and financial oversight rather than establishing that every questioned expenditure violated state law.
“At a time when education funding is a challenge across the Commonwealth, school districts are tightening budgets and families are feeling the strain, this is how DCIU chose to spend taxpayer dollars?” DeFoor questioned.
DCIU provides special education, early childhood programs, career and technical education, and professional development for educators serving Delaware County school districts.
Its operations are supported partly through state education subsidies withheld from school districts to finance intermediate unit services.
The Auditor General’s Office recommended that DCIU strengthen internal controls, maintain complete procurement and contract records, establish an accurate inventory of contracts and improve policies governing expenditures of public funds.
The 21 recommendations also address contract oversight and documentation necessary to demonstrate that purchases comply with applicable requirements and support the agency’s educational mission.
DeFoor characterized the findings as part of broader concerns about accountability in Pennsylvania’s education system, warning that similar financial practices could warrant scrutiny at other intermediate units.
“This is an audit of just one Intermediate Unit, but these findings should be a wake-up call for every IU across the Commonwealth,” he stated.
The audit adds to the Auditor General’s examination of education spending and financial oversight at publicly funded institutions, with its findings placing DCIU’s purchasing procedures and administrative expenditures under scrutiny.
The full performance audit and related information are available through the Pennsylvania Department of the Auditor General at https://www.paauditor.gov/.
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