ODU releases report on Hamilton, others

Old Dominion University underwent an internal audit, the results of which were presented to the Board of Visitors Thursday. The repot (pdf) included the specific objectives of the review:

1. The circumstances surrounding the creation of  The Center for Teacher Quality and Educational Leadership (CTQEL), the development of its structure, and decisions on staffing, including the hiring of Delegate Phil Hamilton;
2. The operations of CTQEL to include:
   1. Revenues
   2. Expenditures (particularly personnel and independent contractors)
   3. Financial interactions between CTQEL and other organizations
3. Documentation of CTQEL activities such as job descriptions, scope of work statements, and reports or deliverables (if possible) to determine if CTQEL expenses were supported by demonstrable products and/or benefits, and
4. Operational and compliance aspects of CTQEL

While this audit was prompted by the Hamilton scandal, what it revealed about the University was equally damning, although not completely a surprise to me.

In real life, as many of you know, I am a CPA. Until a few years ago, a significant portion of my practice was financial auditing. One of the audits that I performed was for a non-profit organization housed at ODU. Like CTQEL, it had no employees of its own, with personnel being paid either by ODU or the ODU Research Foundation (ODURF). My client had a reimbursement arrangement with ODURF. Between that and other clients I have who are employed by ODU, I’m pretty familiar with how ODU and ODURF interact.

The audit revealed that the state funds received by ODU for CTQEL were received as a part of the general allocation for ODU. Had the money come – as anticipated – as a grant, it would have been run through ODURF; even so, ODU essentially treated it as if it were a grant. The budget was controlled by ODURF employee David Blackburn, who was the director of  The Program for Research and Evaluation in Public Schools (PREPS).  The CTQEL program itself was treated as an extension of the PREPS program, which was funded mainly by grants.

The audit found that CTQEL had an office that, in the first year, was rarely used and was actually occupied by another entity in the second year. There was no staffing at the office: an administrative assistant for the program was never hired.

Payments to Hamilton and others were made via what is described as “code 4031.” This code is designed to be used for temporary employees, yet Hamilton and 13 others, including 5 University faculty members, were paid using this code. I suspect this problem is much more widespread and would urge ODU to take a closer look at this university-wide.

The audit also found that there was little documentation of work performed by Hamilton and others, as I previously discussed in this post.

What’s clear from the report is that ODU is culpable in the Hamilton situation. Had proper procedures been in place and enforced, the situation could have been avoided.  Even so, it doesn’t let Hamilton off the hook. He probably got paid for doing nothing – with our tax dollars – with funds that he helped to secure.

Both Hamilton and ODU should be penalized for this.

UPDATE: Hamilton has released a statement (pdf) responding to the audit. Short version: “I did nothing wrong.”