Auditors probing complaints at CCSU
The state Auditors of Public Accounts issued a routine threeyear report Wednesday on Central Connecticut State University’s operations that mildly criticized some of the school’s accounting from 2014 to 2017 for financial receipts and faculty members’ time off.
It was the kind of “vanilla” audit you don’t mind at all if you’re a campus administrator.
But Wednesday’s report didn’t mention what else the key state watchdogs are doing at the New Britain campus. It seems there are flavors less palatable down there than vanilla: Since late 2019, the auditors have quietly been probing several “whistleblower complaints” about the school administration, Government Watch has learned.
The confidential complaints, about five in all, involve allegations ranging from ill-advised spending to unjust personnel actions, and even a university employee or employees performing tasks on the premises of at least one offcampus home, CCSU sources told the Courant.
No determinations have been made as to whether there’s any validity or substance to the allegations, and chief state auditors John Geragosian and Rob Kane refused any comment, and would not even confirm that their office has received any complaints.
But campus sources have verified that state auditors have been asking questions and interviewing individuals for months. No information was available about how long the inquiry will take or when the auditors might issue a report on their findings.
The CCSU administration, headed by President Zulma Toro — whose tenure at CCSU began in 2017 — denied anything is amiss Thursday, but acknowledged that the auditors had asked questions, and that the university has cooperated.
“The University is aware that state auditors received a whistleblower complaint,” said Janice Palmer, interim associate vice president for marketing and communications at CCSU. “During the last six months or so, several members of the leadership team were contacted by the auditors and complied with requests for information.”
She added: “Based on the auditors’ inquiries, we are concerned that information supplied to the Courant and state auditors may be inspired by a couple of individuals who have a personal ax to grind.”