FSU’s internal audits receiving little attention from Tallahassee Democrat

All four of FAMU President James H. Ammons’ annual financial statement audits from the Florida auditor general have been spotless. So now, the Tallahassee Democrat is trying to use a FAMU internal audit investigation to help it create “news” to place on the Associated Press wire.

An article written by Democrat reporter Jennifer Portman (pictured) highlights the fact that FAMU’s Division of Audit and Compliance is reviewing complaints about the accounting used by the Student Government Association’s budget coordinator.

Florida’s public universities all have internal auditors who try to find and fix problems before the state auditors get the books at the end of the fiscal year. Those staffers help schools like FAMU and Florida State University get clean annual audits from the state.

The funny thing is that the Democrat isn’t making a big deal of the numerous findings from FSU’s internal audit investigations. Maybe Democrat Executive Editor Bob Gabordi has been too busy chatting it up with former FAMU Interim President Castell Bryant again to notice that FSU’s chief audit officer has also uncovered financial problems.


Portman’s also article talks about the qualified opinions FAMU received from the state auditors in 2004-2005, 2005-2006, and 2006-2007. But she does not state the fact that Castell, Gabordi’s telephone pal, was responsible for all those qualified opinions.

Below are a few excerpts from FSU’s 2010-2011 Office of Audit Services report.

FSU Student Success Building

“The agreement between the University and the Construction Manager (CM) was not clear regarding the limitation of wage rates or what constitutes ‘actual salary rate.’ As a result, there appeared to be either an overpayment to the CM of $56,000 or an underpayment of $15,000.”

“Most of the fringe benefits components of the multipliers applied to salary expenses and charged to the University were greater than the rates supported by the CM’s accounting records. Depending on the interpretation of the contract and whether bonuses are allowable, the University overpaid the CM by an amount ranging from $14,000 to $84,000.”

“The CM billed and the University paid $60,000 of questionable salary expenses.”

“We identified other costs totaling $1,660 that appear to be unallowable.”

FSU Conference Center

“The agreement between the University and the CM was not clear regarding the limitation of wage rates or what constitutes ‘actual salary rate.’ Depending on the interpretation of the contract, there is either an overpayment or underpayment to the CM ranging from an overpayment of $177,000 to an underpayment of $84,000.”

“Most of the construction multipliers applied to salary expenses charged the University were greater than the rates supported by the CM’s accounting records. Depending on the interpretation of the contract and whether deferred salaries are allowable, the University overpaid the CM by an amount ranging from $12,000 to $59,000.”