Suspicions of administrative interference with internal auditor not new at FAMU

On Oct. 21, FAMU Vice-President for Audit and Compliance Rick Givens wrote the chairman of the Board of Trustees (BOT) to report “potential interference with the work of Audit & Compliance.” Givens was in the middle of looking into questions from the Florida auditor general about spending on the campus President’s House when he received an email from FAMU Vice-President for Finance and Administration Dale Cassidy that led him to send that notice to the BOT.

This isn’t the first time that there have been suspicions of administrative interference with the duties of the FAMU internal auditor.

Back during the 2005-2006 school year, the BOT voted to award Interim President Castell Bryant a $35,000 bonus and raise of $50,000. Those decisions were primarily based on Castell’s claims that she created an $8M surplus in 2004-2005 and straightened out the financial books.

But on June 16, 2006, FAMU Inspector General Michael E. Brown wrote the BOT Audit Committee to state that Castell had placed him “on administrative leave beginning June 15, 2006” and that “this action was taken without any known justification.”

Brown added that: “It is important to note that at the time this action was taken, I was working with my staff on an investigation of very serious allegations involving senior administration officials. By taking this action, the Interim President has effectively stopped this investigation and impaired the independence of the Office of Inspector General.” 

Barney Bishop, who had stepped down from the FAMU BOT months earlier, spoke out against Brown’s suspension in a statement he made to AP Florida Video.

“The inspector general needs to be reinstated. He needs to complete his investigation,” Bishop said. “He needs to be unfettered in his ability to do what needs to be done to find out what the truth is because the problem is we’ve always had a problem getting the truth out of this administration.”

Castell went on to fire Brown later that year. According to the Gradebook blog of the St. Petersburg Times, Castell terminated him “after he began looking into allegations that her administration was distorting the true state of FAMU finances.” Brown responded by filing a lawsuit to clear his name.

The claims Castell had made about creating a surplus and getting the financial books in good shape turned out to be false. State auditors found that there was really a $10.4M deficit at FAMU. The books were in such bad shape that FAMU received its first ever qualified state audit in 2004-2005. That was followed by another qualified audit in 2005-2006. Castell’s 2006 operational audit was the worst in FAMU history with 35 findings.

A St. Petersburg Times report also stated that Florida Auditor General Bill Monroe took issue “with claims by interim Florida A&M University president Castell Bryant that she never requested an internal review by the school's inspector general, who was later fired.”

In 2007, new President James H. Ammons signed a legal settlement with Brown that paid him $90,000, paid his lawyers $25,000, and reinstated Brown’s employment by appointing him to a new job at the FAMU Foundation.

The current administration of President Elmira Mangum hasn’t had much to say about Rick Givens since his Oct. 21 email reporting “possible interference” with his work related to expenditures related to the President’s House. But Mangum did fire General Counsel Avery McKnight less than two months after he told the BOT that her contract had been violated by a set of capital improvement projects that took place at the President’s House without being presented to the BOT for its approval.