The Houston Independent School District has missed out on $82 million in technology upgrades while feds investigate whether employees accepted improper gifts from school vendors, the Houston Chronicle reports.

Superintendent Terry Grier said this week that the district is nearing a legal settlement so that schools can get the funds for much-needed wiring, better Internet access, new servers and more.

The pact, Grier said, would require HISD to pay the federal government about $850,000 to make up for the alleged wrongdoing, which involved former employees accepting gifts from vendors. In exchange, the district no longer would be frozen out of the federal technology grant program called e-rate.

Even with a settlement, criminal charges still could be filed. Grier said he does not believe any current district employees or school board members will face charges.

An attorney representing HISD said the investigation centered on former employees who accepted "meals, entertainment and other gifts from vendors who could profit from the e-rate grants."

(The attorney) did not provide details of the gifts but said they were mostly meals. In one instance, he said, an employee accepted a trip to Las Vegas, perhaps related to an industry conference.

According to HISD's ethics rules, employees are supposed to disclose meals of a $50 value or more from vendors or prospective vendors, as well as meals from a single vendor that add up to more than $100 in a year.

But the district's rules bar employees from taking sports tickets, other types of entertainment, hunting and fishing trips, clothes, and jewelry, among other items. Employees can accept travel to conferences with superintendent approval if the travel "serves the general benefit of the district."

Texas Watchdog earlier this year highlighted an ethics loophole in the reporting of gifts by school board members. HISD trustees are only required to report gifts such as meals and entertainment when the giver --- and that could be a vendor with a million-dollar contract up for renewal --- is not present.

Local government officials (can) keep gifts such as meals and sports tickets out of the public view if the vendor offering the gift also attends the event.

Even though the ethics loophole in the trustees' rules is a separate matter from the gifts former employees may have accepted, Texas Watchdog thinks more transparency in both cases couldn't hurt.