Question: Lying about funds

I have a real issue and am not sure what to do about it. The treasurer and I think the president of out pto isn't being truthful about the budget. The numbers do not add up. Three room moms, including myself, spent most of last year preparing for our 8th grade banquet. We spent months fundraising on our own because the pto board would not approve a fundraiser for our event. They did however, allot $500 of pto funds to be used. Upon receiving the budget for this year, it states they gave us $1600 for this event. I know for 100% sure they did not give s such money. There were at least 3 instances last year that tevents were held and the totals on the budget were false. I'm not sure what to do or where to turn. Anyone have any advice?

Asked by Anonymous

Answers:

Community Advice

mum24kids writes:
I'm not sure I understand; the treasurer doesn't understand the budget? Who put it together? If the president did it on her own, have you or the treasurer had a conversation with her about it? It doesn't have to be confrontational. Just something along the lines of "hey, I worked on the banquet last year, and I only remember the PTO paying out $500 to pay for the DJ. This says the PTO paid out $1,600. What else is in here that I'm forgetting about?"

Community Advice

Chaycethedogs writes:
I think the treasurer was pocketing money. It would have been several thousand dollars over a 2 year period. I called for a review of the. I called for a review of the budget last year when I realized the funds were not being spent as allocated. I was refused because I am not a board member. As a room mom, I was also in charge of the banquet budget and the fundraising for it. The PTO contributed $503.....three room moms raised the other $2000 it cost to do the banquet . I know for certain what the pto contributed. I am so distraught over this. This school is a very small charter school and the kids need that money. I don't know where to turn to get a review or audit or something done to see what is going on. Sorry if I wasn't clear in the first post. I was pretty upset when I wrote it :-(

Community Advice

mum24kids writes:
What do the other two room moms think about this situation? And I guess your bylaws do not require an annual audit? If the three moms have all the figures for the money they raised and the expenses of the banquet, perhaps you could put it in a report, sit down with the treasurer, and have her explain the difference to you. If you still think it doesn't make sense, then it might be worth trying to get the principal involved. But I would be careful about not being accusatory in your tone of this whole thing, because it's possible there is just a misunderstanding about how the accounting works.