(The Center Square) – Two sets of actual spending data submitted by Bossier Parish schools differ by $176.6 million, according to a state review, but auditors did not determine what caused the discrepancy.
Victoria Hayes, assistant legislative auditor and director of Recovery Assistance Services, confirmed to The Center Square that both datasets reflect actual expenditures, rather than a comparison of planned spending with actual costs.
“Our procedure was limited to identifying whether the amounts in the two datasets reconciled,” Hayes said. “We didn’t perform additional procedures to identify the cause.”
The Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s report, released Sept. 30, lists $490,280,618 in expenditures in Bossier’s annual budget dataset, compared with $313,729,185 in its detailed expenditure dataset for July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025.
The $176,551,433 difference was the largest among the seven school systems examined. The report does not establish that money is missing.
Separately, the Louisiana Department of the Treasury confirmed that no Bossier Parish transactions were included in approximately $12.1 million in expenditures it referred for further review statewide.
“Regarding the $12.1 million referred for further review, no Bossier Parish transactions are included,” said Jeff Crouere, communications director for state Treasurer John Fleming.
Crouere directed questions about the reporting discrepancy and corrective actions to the Legislative Auditor’s office, saying Treasury was not authorized to speak for that office.
The Center Square was unsuccessful prior to publication getting comment from Bossier Schools, which is on fall break until Oct. 12.
The Louisiana K-12 School Transparency Project requires public school systems to submit spending and contract information to Treasury for publication online. Crouere emphasized that the website’s data is self-reported and that the site itself is not an audit.
“Our team reviewed millions of lines of data for questionable expenses and tried to identify glaring issues, but we may have missed some,” Crouere said.
Hayes said the Legislative Auditor’s work identified reporting and documentation issues but did not examine the underlying spending.
“Our work was limited to the specific procedures described in the report, and we identified significant reporting and documentation issues through those procedures,” Hayes said. “However, the engagement didn’t include procedures related to spending.”
The review also identified two Bossier contracts totaling $501,700 without sufficient supporting documentation to confirm the reported amounts. Auditors sampled five contracts totaling $572,584.
Hayes confirmed those amounts represent contract values. Asked what documentation was insufficient, she said auditors worked with each school system to collect relevant documents but did not specify which records were missing or inadequate.
The report does not name the vendors or describe the contracts.
A separate check produced no documentation exceptions for Bossier’s sampled expenditures. All 200, totaling $1,231,809, had sufficient supporting documentation.
Bossier’s submitted expenditure data also lacked object and function codes used to classify spending. Auditors therefore did not select a sample to check those classifications against the state accounting handbook. The report does not say whether those codes were maintained in the district’s internal records.
Treasury selected 10 school systems for the review. Auditors performed procedures on seven, including Bossier. Three others submitted information Treasury had not approved. Bossier’s approval concerned whether its information was submitted in an acceptable format.
In a separate statement addressing the statewide review, Fleming urged officials to complete further examinations before drawing conclusions.
“This report is about accountability, not accusation,” Fleming said. “We need to follow the facts, complete the reviews, and determine whether these expenditures were justified and properly documented.”
The transparency project stems from Act 370 of 2023. The Legislative Auditor’s engagement checked specified aspects of the submitted information and did not provide an overall opinion or conclusion on the financial data.
