A Chicago Public Schools (CPS) IT employee allegedly billed both the district and a private vendor for work performed on the same days, potentially costing CPS between $146,000 and $256,000.
That’s according to the Fiscal Year 2025 annual report from the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the Chicago Board of Education.
The report, issued by Inspector General Philip Wagenknecht, summarizes cases drawn from more than 1,200 complaints filed between July 2024 and June 2025 in Chicago Public Schools.
Investigators found extensive overlaps in timesheets over multiple years.
The employee, referred to in the report as Employee A, began working for the vendor in 2019 and was deployed to a CPS Information Technology Services (ITS) team. In August 2020, she started working directly for CPS while continuing part-time work for the vendor. The report states she regularly logged roughly 40 hours per week for both employers, including 678 days with overlapping timesheets, 569 of which recorded 15 or more combined hours.
Airline records and interviews indicated she could not have worked the hours claimed.
The OIG found that Employee A’s supervisors, Employees B and C, failed to adequately monitor or verify vendor staff work, including Employee A’s hours. CPS managers bypassed the ITS ticketing system and exercised limited direct oversight, effectively rubberstamping vendor invoices submitted for payment, the report said.
The investigation determined that Employee A’s conduct constituted theft under the Illinois Criminal Code and violated her fiduciary duty to CPS.
The OIG recommended that Employee A maintain a “Do Not Hire” designation, which she already received.
It also recommended that Employees B and C receive “Do Not Hire” designations, which CPS has implemented, according to the report.
The OIG further recommended improvements in oversight, including ensuring that all vendors and staff augmentation contractors properly use the CPS service ticketing system to track work. ITS has since added ticketing requirements to vendor contracts and implemented an automated work order approval procedure during the 2022–23 school year, the report said.
The OIG, led by Chicago Public Schools Inspector General Philip Wagenknecht, serves as an independent oversight body for approximately 635 CPS district-run, contract, and charter schools. Established in 1996 under the Illinois School Code, it investigates waste, fraud, financial mismanagement, employee misconduct, and contractor or vendor misconduct. Additionally, it oversees a Sexual Allegations Unit investigating sexual misconduct by CPS-affiliated adults involving students or minors.
