UA System audit finds lapses
Spending flagged at several campuses, legislators told
Internal audits found several instances of improper spending on multiple campuses of the University of Arkansas System, lawmakers were told Thursday.
The findings of unauthorized disbursements, allegations of misappropriation of funds and property, improper transactions, fraudulent use of a credit card and unauthorized changes to a vendor master file ranged from about $1,300 to $336,000, according to the December report from the Arkansas Legislative Audit.
All five of those cases have been turned over to the Arkansas Governmental Bonding Board and to the applicable prosecuting attorney.
Two former UA campus employees, Esther Kathryn Lake from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and Dwayne Robinson from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, have been charged with theft of property, among other charges, as a result of fraudulent transactions, according to state auditors.
Lake, who resigned in February, was charged in Washington County Circuit Court in September with one count of theft of property and five counts of fraudulent use of a credit card. Lake pleaded innocent in a later plea and arraignment.
Information given to members of the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee’s educational institutions subcommittee Thursday was that UA’s internal audit found 248 transactions totaling $335,715 for non-business items and travel cards charged to cards assigned to or used by Lake.
An internal audit at UAPB by UA auditors and the Department of Health identified $24,335 in unauthorized or unallowable transactions connected to a grant recipient program called Part of the Solutions, according to information given to lawmakers.
Robinson was charged in October in Jefferson County Circuit Court with theft of
property, 10 counts of forgery and two counts of falsifying business records. His arraignment is scheduled for Monday, according to the state’s online court records.
An additional finding was that five UA System campuses did not complete and submit campus-level financial statements to the system office in a timely manner, meaning administrators were unable to provide its consolidated report to the Arkansas Legislative Audit staff by the original deadline, which delayed the audit process.
Sen. Ben Gilmore, R-Crossett, said he was glad to see the criminal issue addressed, but asked what the system was doing to ensure timely filing.
“I’m glad to know that the people who are responsible are being, obviously, addressed, but I mean, just things like missing deadlines and things of that nature, I’m sure you probably didn’t fire someone for missing a deadline or timely filing of paperwork or something like that,” he said. “Are there checks and balances being put into place to keep that from happening in the future?”
Gina Terry, the system’s chief financial officer, said the system is implementing a new cloud-based human resources system, and some changes and difficulties arose from that process. Terry said the system doesn’t expect those problems to recur, and the new program will prevent faulty bookkeeping in the future.
Sen. Cecile Bledsoe, R-Rogers, said prosecutors don’t always pursue charges, and with the state looking for money for education everywhere, “putting pressure on the prosecuting attorney might help.”