robert_bobbDetroit Public Schools’ deficit is $100 million larger than originally estimated , according to the district’s emergency financial manager.

Robert Bobb, in an interview with The Detroit News, said the deficit is $306 million for this year, due in part to horrendous accounting practices. Among the bad budgeting: The district paid 597 “unbudgeted personnel” totaling $109 million; paid $89 million extra for non-personnel budget items, and spent millions on “excessive” overtime.

Bobb, who comes to Detroit from Washington, D.C., where he was a former city administrator and school board president, said the district will close more than 50 schools and layoff thousands to get out of the red. Even after a month on the job, Bobb has already taken measures to slash spending, like initiating a hiring freeze to save $3.9 million from vacant positions, and he might axe $2-million leases in the Fisher and New Center One buildings.

To fight corruption, Bobb has hired an auditor general and a former FBI agent to be inspector general.