CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — An internal audit obtained by KRIS 6 News has exposed significant oversight failures in Corpus Christi Independent School District's construction management, including more than $1.1 million in contractor overbilling and months of missing insurance coverage on taxpayer-funded buildings.
The audit, which examined projects at Cullen Place and Allen Elementary Schools, revealed a pattern of mismanagement that mirrors problems identified in a previous audit of Carroll High School construction three years ago.
The district's failure to address these recurring issues has drawn sharp criticism from one financial oversight expert, who described the issues identified in the audit as 'more than just small mistakes.'
"They had egregious errors in here, and yet, the only person that caught it was the internal auditor," said Ed Bennett, a certified fraud examiner who reviewed the findings. "I understand clerical errors, but that's why you have supervisors. That's why you have internal control systems."
Bennett expressed particular concern about the repetitive nature of the problems.
"The internal auditor is saying 'We keep finding the same errors and you're not making any changes,' and it's actually resulting in expenditures that should not be made," he said.
CCISD initially tried to keep the internal audit from the public.
6 Investigates requested a copy of that audit at the beginning of October, ahead of the district's last bond election. However, the district asked the Attorney General to withhold the document.
6 Investigates filed its own response with the Attorney General, and in January, the Attorney General told CCISD that it must release that document.
The audit, conducted between March and June of 2024, found mismanagement among district leaders and the contractor involved, Weaver and Jacobs Constructors, LLC. Documents went unsigned and some weren’t presented to the CCISD School Board of Trustees for approval. In addition, those same unsigned documents were missing from the construction project’s file and pertinent decisions were made without proper supervision.
Among the more alarming findings, the district was overcharged more than $1.1 million from the contractor.
While the district avoided paying the overbilled amount given the discovery by the internal auditor, Bennett said it was concerning that the charge was not caught by district supervisors and should have been caught earlier.
The Allen project also operated for three months without mandatory insurance coverage, exposing taxpayers to significant potential liability.
Both projects exceeded completion deadlines by two months, yet district officials failed to notify the school board and did not enforce the contractually required $1,000 daily late completion penalty.
The audit also found a $407,872.18 overcharge due to what the contractor described as “typos" and duplicate payments from subcontractor vendors.
Karen Griffith, Deputy Superintendent for Business and Support Services, acknowledged the failures while defending the district's overall project management practices.
"Are we perfect? Absolutely not. Can we always strengthen the saw? Absolutely. Every finding, we address and we make sure that we are addressing those," Griffith said.
Griffith also said that the audit findings don't present a complete picture of the district's construction management.
“To make an assessment just based off the glimpse of an audit that’s only finding findings, at the same time, they haven’t seen all things that we do, do correctly," Griffith added.
Bennett said district leaders and the contractors need to be better.
“They need to revamp their internal control systems and monitor it and train their people," Bennett said. "The support is not there.”
Griffith said that the district is implementing new oversight procedures, including regular spot checks of contractor billing.
"Most of the time when we catch these it'll be at the end before we do their final pay app. So what we're trying to do is trying to be more vigilant instead of waiting until the very, very end," Griffith said. "So we have now changed some of our procedures to periodically just do spot checks."
6 Investigates reached out to Weaver and Jacobs Constructors, LLC several times, but they chose not to comment.
For the latest local news updates, click here, or download the KRIS 6 News App.
