A story broke on Tuesday December 5th in the Dallas morning News (DMN) about the Dallas Independent School District’s new head of the Office of District Integrity, David Fryar, did not have his CPA license as he stated on his resume.

According to the DMN:

Mr. Fryar’s résumé and application stated that he is a CPA, according Mr. Martinez. When the district sent out a news release announcing his hiring, the first sentence stated that Mr. Fryar was “a certified public accountant.”

But the state board revoked Mr. Fryar’s license in 1996 after he failed to complete mandatory professional development courses required for all CPAs in Texas. When asked Tuesday whether he was a CPA, Mr. Fryar replied after a long pause: “I passed the [CPA] exam in 1980. However, I am not in good standing. I have not kept my certification up, which is not uncommon.”

When asked whether he disclosed his revoked license to the district, he replied: “I told that to them when they hired me.”

Said Mr. Martinez, the DISD spokesman: “We were not aware” of the revoked license.

Not sure who is at fault here or if any one person is at fault, but it appears blame lies at the feet of Mr. Fryar. Mr. Fryar was fully aware that his CPA license was not valid and that he couldn’t legally call himself a CPA (according to Texas law). If he told the DISD about his lack of licensure and the DISD still hired him and marketed him as having a CPA, then shame on the DISD too.

Mr. Fryar had been on the job less than 2 weeks and has now resigned.

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