According to David Miller of Fresno Produce, one of the school district’s long-time suppliers, Fresno Unified School district may have overpaid for produce by hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.
Invoices obtained by Miller show the district paid a few cents more than the bid price for a number of individual fruits and vegetables, like yellow peaches and nectarines. But those pennies per item over the years add up to a lot of money at a district the size of Fresno Unified.
“Why even have a bid if you’re not expected to stick to it?” Miller said. “We’re only getting documents related to three elementary schools. Who knows where it goes from there.”
In October 2015, for example, Miller found the district paid $1,304 more than initially agreed upon in its bid. Miller requested thousands of pages of invoices from the district to compare the bid price to the billed price for fruit that’s served as part of the Fresh Fruits and Vegetables program. He said he was alerted to a possible discrepancy after receiving the first few invoices via anonymous letter.
Fresno Unified says the nature of the Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Program allows the district to stay flexible, paying for variable quantities or sizes as needed, and adjusting to weather events that may have affected the year’s crop.
The district also has an interest in maximizing the grant it receives, which is the largest in California at approximately $2 million, according to Chief Operations Officer Karin Temple. If the district doesn’t spend the grant in its entirety one year, it may not receive as much the next year, Executive Director of Purchasing Paul Rosencrans said. He added that the district is in the process of reviewing the invoices Miller requested.
“I don’t know that we’ve found a particular product that there wasn’t a justification for the price increase,” Rosencrans said. “If there is something to find, I want our money back, too.”
Source: fresnobee.com
