Warning signs about the Minneapolis Public Schools senior finance officer, Ibrahima Diop, had been accumulating for months: IRS penalties, a mysterious deficit in the district’s healthcare trust account, a blistering outside audit that referred to the department’s “pervasive fear and uncertainty,” two reprimands and a performance improvement plan.
Yet Diop remained in his job until Jan. 2, by which time he’d resigned to take a job in Milwaukee. He had been the district’s top financial official for nearly a decade.
Days later, the district filed a police report related to “wire fraud,” though no names appear on the report and the district won’t explain it. State law limits the information the district can release about former employees.
The Reformer has filed multiple public records requests since first learning the district’s three top finance leaders were declared “out of the office indefinitely” early this year. The district hasn’t responded to a number of those requests — including two dating back to January.
Diop didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Public records obtained by the Reformer — personnel records, investigative reports, invoices, emails, a police report and other documents — paint a picture of a chaotic department, and a district slow to respond.
The finance department’s personnel problems have accompanied fiscal instability. The district has had to talk to both bond counsel and credit rating agencies about the recent, unexpected decline in its fund balance, the administration told a school board committee this week.