Over the past three years, Florida A&M has been used as what the university has called a “pass through” to send millions in taxpayer dollars to nonprofit groups with close ties to two term-limited state senators.
The money was secured by Jacksonville Republican Stephen Wise and Orlando Democrat Gary Siplin during final budget negotiations and did not go through the normal appropriations process. It was put in FAMU’s budget for the “Targeted Student Assistance Program,” whose purpose is to “guide, motivate and prepare high school students from low performing schools for future success.”
The program exists only on paper. None of the money is meant for FAMU, emails and state records reviewed by the Times-Union show.
“The Targeted Student Assistance grant funds included in the FAMU 2010-11 and 2011-12 budgets are pass-through funds in which the university serves solely as the fiscal agent,” wrote Sharon Saunders, a FAMU spokeswoman, in a statement.
The Board of Governors, which makes budget requests for state universities, never requested the money but lawmakers sent it to FAMU anyway. With shrinking state budgets, that is rare.
A federal audit of some of the money found safeguards weren’t adequate to ensure it was being used correctly.