City of Pawtucket Shuts Down Fiscal Year Early – Terminates Outstanding Purchase Orders -What?

In a move that can only be described as bizarre, the City of Pawtucket Finance Office apparently, without notice or authority, ended the City of Pawtucket School Department Fiscal Year on June 12, 2024, as opposed to the legally mandated date of June 30, 2024. In doing so, authorized Purchase Orders were deleted from the accounting system, leaving School Department officials to engage in their own, ongoing, forensic accounting process to determine which authorized purchases were cancelled.

According to sources, no communication … proactively, or post action has been received from the City Finance Department. Apparently, emails are being kicked back with “Out of Office” auto generated responses. As a result, the Pawtucket School Department has issued a demand letter to City Finance.

The City of Pawtucket has signaled, in recent months a variety of financial problems, by ceasing payments to vendors & missing payroll. Although there appear to be a multitude of issues, the failure to Bond the Winter School, coupled with extreme debt servicing requirements, are often cited as root causes.

The Coalition Radio Network was able to obtain a copy of this letter, printed below.

The Coalition has reached out to both School Department & City Finance Officials for comment.