Education Commissioner Acted ‘Inappropriately’ When She Moved Generator From School To Her Home Following Hurricane Irma, Inspector General Concludes

ST. THOMAS — An investigation by the Office of the Inspector General of the Virgin Islands into whether Department of Education Commissioner, Sharon McCollum, had stolen a generator belonging to D.O.E. and installed it at her residence for personal use, concluded that Ms. McCollum had indeed utilized the generator at her home following the 2017 storms, a move Inspector General Steven van Beverhoudt concluded was “inappropriate,” and as exercising “bad judgement.”

“The investigation has confirmed that in fact the generator was moved to the commissioner’s home shortly after the passage of Hurricane Irma,” Mr. van Beverhoudt wrote in a letter addressed to Governor Kenneth Mapp and Senate President Myron Jackson dated May 29. It has since been relocated to a storage area at the Adelita Canryn Junior High School, according to the report. Ms. McCollum stated that the generator was moved to her residence for security reasons and that her home was utilized at times as a base of operations, and therefore felt that her utilization of the generator was justified.

The Office of the Inspector General, however, concluded that the generator should not have been moved to the commissioner’s home, and more importantly it should not have been connected. The I.G.’s office also concluded that the administration of Ivanna Eurdora Kean High School — where the generator was originally in use — should have been notified of the move; and the generator probably could have been used in some other capacity for the Department of Education or the Government of the Virgin Islands.

Calls placed to Mapp administration spokesperson Sandra Goomansingh were not returned at time of writing.

The I.G.’s investigation was launched following a rumor that circulated on local radio alleging that Ms. McCollum had taken the generator for use at her home. The generator was taken from the Eudora Kean High School’s Talapia Farm and moved to Ms. McCollum’s residence by D.O.E.’s assistant director of maintenance. It stayed at Ms. McCollum’s home from September 2017 until it was moved to a warehouse at the Addelita Cancryn Junior High School on January 22.

Sharon McCollum, Department of Education commissioner. (D.O.E.)

In defending her actions, Ms. McCollum told the I.G. in an initial interview that she took the generator to her home to protect it from being stolen, stating that copper theft at the Eudora Kean High School had influenced her decision. However, the reports of the copper wire theft at the school’s gym were made weeks after school started on October 9, and based on the statements of Kean High’s principal and the teacher in charge of overseeing the Tilapia Farm, the generator was missing from the Tilapia Farm when they returned to assess Kean High after Hurricane Maria had passed in late September — weeks before the copper theft occurred. According to Mr. van Beverhoudt, Ms. McCollum could not explain this contradiction and maintained her position that the generator was exposed and unprotected at Kean High, so it was moved to her residence to be secured.

In a second interview, the commissioner said she had frequently worked from her home and therefore she believed her utilization of the D.O.E. generator was justified.

According to the report, Ms. McCollum repeatedly denied that she had the generator moved to her residence for the purpose of energizing her home while she was without city power. She stated that the generator was placed in the driveway of her residence in “plain sight” and that there was no attempt to conceal it. She further stated that she possessed two smaller generators for her personal use. However, Ms. McCollum acknowledged that she eventually had the generator connected to her home, but indicated that this was done after the generator was already on her property for a period of time.

“Based upon the results of the investigation, it is our conclusion that the commissioner of Education acted inappropriately when she utilized the generator to energize her personal residence,” Mr. van Beverhoudt said. “While we cannot specifically determine whether or not the Commissioner had the generator moved solely for this purpose, we believe that the Commissioner should have used better judgement during the handling of this matter.

“Furthermore, the administrators of Kean High should have been explicitly informed that the generator was moved in an effort to avoid any confusion.

“Although it may not have been powerful enough to provide sufficient electricity for areas of Kean High, we believe that the generator could have been utilized in another capacity to support hurricane recovery efforts within Education or at other government locations,” the inspector general concluded.