Waste of the Day: School Lost $20M in Inventory

Topline: A Maryland state audit identified 16 issues with the management of Baltimore City Community College, including $20 million of missing inventory, payments to potential “ghost students,” and an employee receiving paychecks four years after they left their job.

Millions in inventory unaccounted for

Key facts: According to the audit, more than 26,000 laptops and other “sensitive items” were unaccounted for in the college’s most recent inventory count in 2023. The college made no attempt to find the items and did not follow a legal requirement to report the incident to the state, the audit found.

Just because the items were unaccounted for does not necessarily mean they were stolen, but it greatly increases the risk of theft or loss. 

The college did not return a request for comment asking why it did not attempt to locate the missing items.

The audit also found that the college may have fallen victim to “ghost students” — fake applicants created by scammers to fraudulently obtain financial aid. School officials flagged more than 4,000 applicants as potential ghost students, but never followed up to determine whether they were fraudsters or real students. The school later paid $264,392 in financial aid from federal and state funds to 145 of the applicants.

The financial aid flaws were one of six issues already identified in a 2022 audit that were never addressed.

The college also did not have “adequate procedures” to monitor its payroll. There were 71 employees who received paychecks after they left their jobs, auditors found. Others received payouts for unused vacation time above what is allowed by state law.

More than half their payroll

Auditors also saw “multiple occasions” where the college did not lock the safe containing money that had not yet been deposited in the bank.

Search all federal, state and local salaries and vendor spending with the world’s largest government spending database at OpenTheBooks.com. 

Background: Baltimore City Community College had a $35.6 million payroll last year, according to Open the Books’ database. 

President Debra McCurdy is by far the highest-paid. From 2021 to 2025, the period covered by the audit, McCurdy made nearly $2.4 million in salary, or an average of $477,800 per year.

The school has almost 4,400 undergraduate students. It received almost $45 million in state funding for 2026, more than $10,000 per student.

Summary: Taxpayers deserve clear explanations and accountability for Baltimore City Community College’s failure to properly oversee huge amounts of state funding.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.