Question 1: What were the major findings in this audit?

 

The state’s Office of Legislative Audits reviewed the university’s spending from 2021 to 2024. 

 

The big finding is that the university is not checking its timesheets to make sure staff actually worked all the hours they say they did.

 

The timesheets are supposed to be signed by the employee and their supervisor, but salaries get paid out anyway when the sheets aren’t signed. It happened over 6,000 times from 2021 to 2024. There were a few dozen employees who turned in unsigned timesheets 70 times or more. 

 

The university spent almost $2 billion on payroll last year, including 87 people who made $500,000 or more. But some of that was for employees with unverified hours.

 

 

Question 2: And there were similar issues with researchers working with state grant money, right?

 

The university also isn’t checking that researchers are billing the state the correct amount. 

 

The university has 5,300 open grants worth over $750 million. It uses that money to pay the researchers working on the projects. Before the money’s actually paid, the university staff are supposed to look at time sheets and other documents from the researchers to make sure they’re being paid the correct amount.

 

But the state auditors reviewed six grants and found that the university didn’t complete those steps for any of them. They’re essentially just taking the researchers’ word for it and paying them without checking they actually worked as many hours as they claimed.

 

One researcher was supposed to get paid $117 an hour but actually got $243 per hour, and the university had no documents to explain why.

 

 

Question 3: What other problems are listed in this audit?

 

From 2021 to 2023, the university made over 4,000 purchases worth $2.3 million on its credit cards without a competitive bidding process. That’s usually the best way to make sure the government is getting its money’s worth - ask multiple vendors to give a price estimate, and then choose the cheapest one.

 

Employees also worked together to spend more than was allowed on the credit cards. Transactions must be less than $5,000. But the auditors found large purchases that were split between multiple credit cards - less than $5,000 on each card, but up to $37,000 in total.

 

The audit also found three issues with the university’s cybersecurity system, but they’re redacted and we can’t see the details.