Cost of UCF spending investigation tops $1M
The University of Central Florida has spent more than $1 million investigating how school leaders funneled operating money into construction spending accounts over the past decade as a state university system review of the matter continues.
The Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner law firm, which has been probing UCF’s construction spending since September, is expected to give an update on the ongoing investigation Thursday morning at a meeting of the Board of Governors, which oversees the state university system.
In all, UCF has paid the Bryan Cave law firm just more than $1 million. The review is continuing under the Board of Governors’ direction, at the university’s expense.
The Board of Governors recently released the firm’s “preliminary findings,” which detailed more than $61 million that university leaders had transferred to construction accounts dating back to 2012. It’s not clear whether the university actually spent the money.
The findings differ from those that emerged from earlier probes, and a spokeswoman for the Board of Governors did not respond to a question from the Orlando Sentinel about whether the dollar amounts listed are in addition to projects that were already identified.
Joey Burby, the lead investigator for the law firm, will give a presentation about the review during Thursday’s meeting in Tampa, according to the board’s agenda.
The list includes a few projects
that weren’t included in earlier reports, such as $11.1 million that was transferred to a construction account for a heating and power plant on the main campus in 2012 and $2.4 million that was slated for a building at the College of Medicine.
The problems with spending at UCF first came to light over the summer, when the Auditor General’s office found the university had spent $38 million in operating dollars to build Trevor Colbourn Hall, an academic building that opened in August.
The state prohibited universities from using operating dollars for new construction, though a new state law will ease those restrictions.
UCF leaders soon hired the Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner law firm to investigate who was involved in the decision to misspend state money and whether operating dollars had been used on other construction projects. That initial review wrapped up in January, but the Board of Governors decided the probe should continue at the university’s expense.
Beyond the money UCF has spent investigating the matter, the university has paid a heavy price for the misspending.
The Board of Governors lambasted university leaders in September, with one member telling trustees they were not “potted plants.”
A Florida House committee probing the issue accused administrators of concealing the source of funding for construction projects to trustees.
And former President Dale Whittaker resigned in February, less than eight months after he took the helm of the school.
A Florida House investigation found the university had spent, or transferred, nearly $85 million in leftover operating money for construction.