KEY TAKEAWAYS: Treasurer John Fleming referred about $12.1 million in school expenditures for further review. The largest category was $7.45 million in additional employee payments, often described as bonuses. Other spending included meals, retreats, food delivery, gifts and expenses categoriz ed as lobbying or political. Fleming emphasized that the referrals do not constitute findings of wrongdoing or noncompliance.   Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming has referred about $12.1 million in school expenditures for further review, including additional employee payments, meals, gifts and payments categorized as lobbying or political expenses. Fleming outlined the concerns in a response attached to a Louisiana Legislative Auditor report released Wednesday examining financial information submitted to the state’s K-12 school transparency project. Treasury’s spending review covered July 2024 through December 2025. “The referral of these expenditures does not constitute a finding or determination of noncompliance, impropriety, or wrongdoing,” Fleming wrote. Instead, he said, the referral is intended to allow an independent examination of the expenditures and supporting records. The largest category was $7.45 million in additional employee payments, often described as bonuses. Treasury said those payments appeared to be separate from employees’ base salaries and one-time stipends authorized by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Some additional compensation also did not appear to be included in annual payroll information reported to the Louisiana Department of Education, according to Fleming’s response. Treasury identified another $1.09 million in meals and entertainment, $692,000 in retreats and large special events, and $175,841 in purchases through DoorDash and Uber Eats. The response listed restaurant purchases, leadership retreats and miscellaneous expenses that included Bayou Classic suite tickets and tickets from the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club. It did not identify which school systems made those individual purchases or provide their explanations. Another $310,836 involved gifts, gift cards and sponsorships. Treasury described some purchases as employee appreciation gifts, including gift cards, flowers and items from retailers such as Bath Body Works and Lululemon. Payments categorized as lobbying or political expenses totaled $627,835. Treasury described those transactions as payments to lobbying firms or expenses labeled governmental relations or events. The auditor examined financial reporting for July 2024 through June 2025 for seven of 10 school systems Treasury selected. The other three submitted information Treasury had not approved, so auditors did not perform the procedures for those systems. Across the seven systems examined, auditors reported differences between expenditures listed in annual budget data and totals in detailed expenditure submissions. They also identified missing or inconsistent accounting classifications and insufficient documentation supporting some sampled expenditure and contract amounts. The engagement was limited to procedures agreed upon with Treasury. Auditors did not express an overall opinion or conclusion on the financial information. The transparency project stems from Act 370 of 2023, which requires public school systems to submit financial information to Treasury for publication on a public website. The reporting includes expenditures and contracts. In a separate section outside the $12.1 million total, Treasury raised concerns about limited detail accompanying $107.95 million in charter management organization transfers and $8.65 million involving “friends” organizations. Fleming said those transactions raised questions about money moving between related organizations and the lack of detail about the expenditures. He said Treasury would continue working with the legislative auditor, attorney general’s office and Department of Education to ensure compliance with reporting requirements and applicable state laws. ...read more read less