by INFORUM
NDSU makes changes to internal audit office
August 9, 2010 at 3:23 am in INFORUM
FARGO In the wake of controversy over spending on the new president’s house at North Dakota State University and a state auditor’s report, NDSU President Dean L. Bresciani is redefining the mission of the university’s internal audit office “to place additional emphasis on a campus culture of ethical behavior and good stewardship,” according to a news release this morning. Continue Reading
The NDSU Development foundation continues to get a “pass” for their part in this mess. Executive Director Jim Miller’s arrogant- “we don’t use public funds, we use donated funds” response continues to amaze me. Why would anybody donate a penny to that organization?
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I thought that the internal auditors were now reporting to the board of higher education in Bismarck and taking their workload from Bismarck, this seems to say that NDSU still have their hand in what is done by their audit staff, so has anything really changed?
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i dont understand, if its private funds, why do you 2 posters or any other nd taxpayer care? let NDSU spend their boosters/alumni money they way they want.
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Cuz this article and this office is not part of the development foundation its an official office of the university and gets its funding from the state. Part of the dishonesty and unethical behavior of the past dealt with the remodeling of the Presidents Office which was using university and taxpayer dollars, the development foundation had nothing to do with that. I think its you who doesn’t understand that when taxpayers dollars are being spent the public has a right to know that the people spending the money act in good faith and ethically, which as reported in the audit and are by resignations is not something Chapman, Finance VP Adams, facility guy Frantz did. That is the reason for the uproar.
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Liberty:
The reason there is an uproar is that people don’t pay attention to what is going on.
NDSU gets about 30% of it’s funding from the state.
In the example you give, I’m pretty sure the final report blamed confusing procedures if I remember correctly. And as far as the business school wasn’t it the funds taken in independently that was the issue? Like can NDSU use the money it makes off pop machines without asking the state for permission? The answer was yes, they can.
Meanwhile the foundation paid like over 95% of the Presidents house and all of the new business building ( I think it’s rated the top in the nation, high anyway). Not to mention a ton of other things.
If you donate to the foundation, like I do, please keep complaining, otherwise before you start screaming about your tax dollars make sure that is what paid for something.
This is getting so old…
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Christy,
Public dollars paid for the remodeling of the Presidents office, not donated dollars. And I read the report a couple times (both reports) and have read the policies from the Higher Ed Website, and NDSU (which are published on their website) and I feel they knew exactly what they were doing when they separated the demolition and the remodeling of the office into 2 separate projects to keep each under the $250,000 threshhold so they didn’t have to get approval, plus did you listen to what the VP said, he said Chapman wanted to keep it quiet and to get is done no matter what – so he learned how UND scammed the system and got the project done. Come on, do you really think that demolition and remodeling are two separate projects? What was Chapman going to do, sit in an office with now walls, insulation, carpeting, etc??? We, the public are not that stupid. And these are people who we trusted to act in the best interest of public dollars? That is my gripe – they were public dollars, I’m not talking about the President’s house either.
And read a couple old audit reports from the state auditors office, they have always questioned the use of pop machine revenue (on the state auditors website).
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Who pays for lights, maintenance, repairs, insurance, etc. for the next 30 years? I seriously don’t know. If it is the taxpayers, then we really do care if they donate a $1M or a $2M home.
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Partly because when the President raises donations they tend to go to the Development Foundation not NDSU. So they are kind of private and kind of public. Seems to me the State Auditor even did a couple of audits of the Development Foundation in the Past. But maybe I’m getting it confused with the Research Foundation.
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Oh and if the money was raised for general university endowment instead of the Foundation, that would reduce the amount of money paid by taxpayers to fund the university, since it goes to the Foundation, that is basically off the books and they use it the way they want, mostly athletic scholarships, but also some other scholarships, some faculty development, some academic projects, but mostly athletics.
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NDSU’s new BSA arena raised $32 million for its renovation, all privately and the state of ND gave $6 million straight up to minot state for their beaver arena. face it, ndsu gets screwed alot.
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