Every two years, multiple findings turn up in the
operational audits of public universities all across Florida. The operational
audits for most of the State University System of Florida (SUS) institutions
rarely receive any significant attention from Florida newspapers. But FAMU is
typically singled out for negative headlines whenever its routine report is
released by the Florida auditor general.
The 2012 operational audit reports for Florida Atlantic University,
the University of South Florida, Florida International University, the University
of Florida, Florida State University, and the University of Central Florida have
been available for months. They had the following number findings: FAU (12), USF
(10), FIU (9), UF (8), FSU (7), and UCF (5).
Florida newspapers haven’t dragged the presidents of those
universities through the mud for the problems that auditors found in those
reports. FAMU will not be that lucky because there a number of papers in the
Sunshine State that seem to think FAMU’s operational audits are the only ones
that are newsworthy.
What often happens is that the Tallahassee Democrat and/or
Tampa Bay Times (formerly the St. Petersburg Times) will write an article about
FAMU’s operational audit and then place it on the Associated Press wire. Other Florida
newspapers will then pick up the AP story and reprint it word-for-word.
Readers across Florida get the impression that FAMU is the
only public university that had operational audit findings because they haven’t
seen any stories about the operational audits at other SUS institutions. Many
Floridians probably still don’t know that the Board of Governors (BOG) had findings
on its operational audits in 2008 and 2010.
Back in 2008, state auditors faulted the BOG for failing to
properly document the decision-making process it used when it reviewed
proposals for the 21st Century World Class Scholars Program, a $20M legislatively-funded
initiative that provides matching grants to help universities lure science and
technology professors. In 2010, state auditors still found problems with the
BOG’s documentation for that program.
“Our current review disclosed that while the BOG had
established procedures and obtained expenditure reports from the universities
for the 2007-08 fiscal year, no expenditure reports for the 2008-09 fiscal year
were available for our review,” Florida Auditor General David Martin wrote in
2010.
Chancellor Frank Brogan responded by stating that he would
make sure to begin getting the necessary information on file by the end of each
fiscal year. He didn’t explain why he failed to have the proper documentation
available in time for the 2010 operational audit.
There are sure to be even more findings on the BOG’s
upcoming operational audit in 2012. But FAMUans shouldn’t hold their breaths
for those findings to attract statewide headlines. Rattlers should prepare for Florida
news organizations to write front page stories about FAMU’s 2012 operational
audit along with quotes from Brogan and BOG Chairman Dean Colson demanding “accountability”
at the university.