The task force formed last year in response to lawmakers' concerns over financial mismanagement at FAMU has ended its work -- concluding in a report to the governor, Senate president and House speaker that the university has taken steps to deal with most of the problems identified in past state audits.
“President Ammons and his administration have been persistent and aggressive in putting corrective measures in place," said task force chair Lynn Pappas, a member of the Board of Governors. “FAMU has laid the foundation to restore financial operational integrity and public trust.”
The FAMU Task Force’s final report will be released next week. The group had requested $3 million from the legislature to do its job, but received only $1-million in state money. The task force only spent $750,000 and must return the remaining $250,000 back to the state.
The Task Force found that through 72 corrective actions put in place by FAMU, the university had addressed 92 percent of the findings noted by the task force earlier. The task force also found Florida A&M University had processes in place to address the remaining 8 percent of the findings.
Also see: FAMU progress called phenomenal
Senate critical of BOG Task Force
Lawson ask for task force to be disband
I wonder how Castell and crew feel about his bit of news? She was making us think that FAMU was unable to handle its own matters, but now look at this, in less than a year Ammons and his team has the University in good standings. The state should sue Castell for the bonus and raise that she got for the "good job" she did as the IP.
ReplyDeleteWay to go FAMU...
ReplyDeleteHigh quality administrators, faculty, and staff + high expectations + sufficient resources + senior administration support = SUCCESS FOR YOU
Congratulations.....keep up the good work....
(I'm an outsider but I'd say you'd be better off not even thinking about Bryant. She's a toxic subject that focuses on the negative, and all the advice books say keep toxic people and subjects off your radar screen...I believe in that, really.)
6:38pm I agree...the state should pursue litigation against Casthell because that was taxpayer money used to give a bonus to a FRAUD!
ReplyDeleteAlso litigation should be brought against the Casthell Wrecking Crew for all these court settlements that the new FAMU admin has to pay out to disgruntled former FAMU employees and businesses burned by the Casthell admin...FAMU pockets are already shallow with the state budget cuts...but still having to feel the lingering effects of Casthell's pathological indiscretions...
And finally the state needs to go after those KPMG consulting criminals hired by Casthell for wasting millions of tax payer dollars yet producing NO results! It took Dr. Ammons' admin less than a year to do what they were paid and SUPPOSED to do in 2.5 years! I think we had to settle with them too right before Casthell slithered her butt back to Miami Lakes...
http://chronicle.com/news/index.php?id=4736&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en
ReplyDeleteFrom the Chronicle of Higher Education:
Report Will Say Florida A&M U. Is on a Path to Fiscal Recovery
One year after a state audit found $39-million in undocumented expenditures at Florida A&M University, the institution is on track to put its fiscal house in order, according to a news release issued today by the state university system’s Board of Governors.
A task force, created by the board to overhaul financial operations at the university, is scheduled to release its final report next Monday. The report is expected to say that the institution has fixed more than 90 percent of the bookkeeping problems discovered in the 2007 audit.
New measures, which will be specified in next week’s report, are meant to give the university’s Board of Trustees more information and oversight of financial matters.
The audit of the university’s spending in the 2006 fiscal year identified many accounting discrepancies, including a $2.7-million inconsistency in student-aid transactions, missing equipment worth another $2.7-million, and misplaced records of $1.8-million in athletics-ticket sales.
Margaret Lynn Pappas, a member of the Board of Governors and chairwoman of the task force, praised President James H. Ammons, who took office in July 2007 in the wake of the audit and news that the university’s accreditor had placed it on a six-month probation.
“President Ammons and his administration have been persistent and aggressive in putting corrective measures in place,” Ms. Pappas said in the news release. Now it will be up to the university’s Board of Trustees to ensure that it follows through, she added. —Eric Kelderman
Posted on Wednesday June 25, 2008 | Permalink |
Way to go FAMU......
Hey...I wrote the note about not dwelling on Bryant on this up-beat BLOG, but I totally agree that she made significant misrepresentations and false statements that she knew or should have known were not true, and she benefited financially based on false data provided to the FAMU UBOT. Of course they wanted to believe what she was telling them, but that's another story entirely. If there is any way to legally go after her for "honest services theft" then the BOG should act. A teacher who gets a raise based on an advanced degree from a diploma mill, can be fired and have to return all funds received, because it is consider "fraud." What Bryant did was "fraud" also -- and she fired the guy who tried to call her on it. Maybe the Student Body could get involved???
ReplyDeleteIf I am not mistaken, she made around $500.000 in two years of poor service, while the school was almost closed. The media was comparing FAMU to Enron, my only argument is to atleast get her bonus and raise back because she surely didn't earn either.
ReplyDeleteIt take 5 years for mismanagement and/or successful management to surface when talking about finances. Time will tell how great of a job has been done! I believe that is why there is continued skepticism among SACS members. Maybe one should check NCCU's financial status at this point.
ReplyDelete10:09, I don't know what you're talking about, but Dr. Ammons andhis leadership team have done miraculous things since he came aboard twelve months ago. In fact, FAMU's probation has been lifted (6/26/08) by the SACS body, and our university is fully functioning!In all fairness, though, we also have to understand that Ammons was part of the Humphries team that helped put the university in the mess that it was in when he, Ammons, left to assume the presidency at NCCU. Hello.
ReplyDeleteFTR FAMU has been fully functioning this entire past year...Our accreditation was still fully installed with SACS while under probation...
ReplyDeleteAll this mess about lack of financial control rolling over from the Humphries admin and including Dr. Ammons needs to stop! The state and SACS records show that under Humphries FAMU had the cleanest audits in the state with the fewest citings among SUS peers...and dont EVER recall FAMU having a qualified audit during the Humphries admin...There's a reason why the media reported FAMU's last audit as the cleanest in 3 years...