Nijak self-reported to the district’s treasurer on Sept. 21 that he “falsely verified that the district was in balance for multiple months on the monthly bank reconciliation by forging inaccurate numbers on the electronic bank reconciliation spreadsheet,” according to an email sent to all district staff from Superintendent Paula Crew.
Crew said the accountant firm, Julian & Grube, as well as the district’s treasure, completed the reconciliation of the district’s books.
“Fortunately, they were able to confirm that there was no theft of district funds,” she said. “The reconciliation issues were a result of payments made to several of our approved vendors, but not recorded. This resulted in our book balance being higher than the bank balance.”
Several transactions had to be corrected, Crew said, which resulted in the district’s book balancing “to the penny.” She said that the cost of the reconciliation work by the CPA firm will be billed to Nijak.
Personnel from the Ohio Auditor of State’s Office and the Clark County Sheriff’s Office were also notified of the incident.
“The district has done its due diligence to respond in a swift manner to this situation while being transparent along the way,” Crew said.
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