A Florida School Board is accusing a collection agency of not remitting nearly $200,000 in funds that it is owed, according to a published report.
The agency, CheckCare, is now likely to be sued by the school board as it seeks to try and recover the unpaid funds.
CheckCare had started working for the Palm Beach County School Board in February 2015, collecting on unpaid school lunches, field trip fees, after-care programs and other expenses. CheckCare promised to reimburse the school board for any bounced check up to $1,500, regardless of whether it collected the money. But within months of the contract being approved, the agency stopped remitting payments, stopped answering calls or responding to certified letters, and started bouncing checks of its own.
CheckCare was supposed to take out a $300,000 bond to cover non-payments, but the school board did not confirm the bond was purchased before signing the contract.
“We lost $196,000 because someone forgot to check the contract,” School Board member Frank Barbieri said. “Now we have to sue them with little chance of collecting. If they had the money, they wouldn’t be giving us checks with nonsufficient funds.”
