Louisiana Secretary of State
Election Results for 12/07/2002

Men in black at GSU       June 28, 2001, Page 1

Grambling State University officials put up a roadblock Friday when a legislative auditor came to campus to look into recent thefts of public money. But investigators are adept at cutting roadblocks down to speed bumps, and Monday morning a record number of state auditors walked in the doors of Long-Jones Hall.

So did District Attorney Bob Levy, who showed up to relay a message to acting president Neari Warner: The five-member legislative audit team, led by Sam De Lee, CPA, CFE, will head the probe of thefts that GSU had kept secret until the Morning Paper ran the initial report June 14.

It was De Lee who came across the roadblock last week while he was at the university to assess the need for an in-depth investigation. The officials who refused to give him access to records cited a possible investigation by the district attorney.

In a June 14 letter to Legislative Auditor Dan Kyle--with copies to Levy and University of Louisiana System president Sally Clausen--Warner reported one theft on May 8 and possibly two others. Levy wrote Warner to ask for details of the thefts.

Sources say De Lee found five cases in the files of internal auditor Phyliss Spragin. Only one of the five was included in the three alleged thefts we reported June 21. Then Warner received Levy's letter.

Late Friday afternoon the district attorney--who was on the road at the time--received a call from Daryl Purpera, chief of the legislative auditor's investigative audit section. Through the static of the cell phone, Levy caught the gist of the message: GSU had called a halt to the legislative auditor's inquiry.

As Levy told Warner Monday, there is no conflict between the investigations. Legislative auditors will handle the on-site investigation. The district attorney's staff will provide any backup such as subpoenas needed to follow a money trail.

In an interview Monday, Kyle discounted the significance of sending five investigators instead of the usual two "We just want to get in and get it over with in a week or so, issue our report and go back to other cases."

The five forensic auditors join a like number of compliance auditors who have been on the GSU campus since May 6 preparing for audits of the 2001 and 2002 financial statements. The administration's failure to report the thefts promptly, as required by law, is sure to prompt a finding; worse, the response to the thefts brings up questions about the very credibility of the statements.

In a June 21 letter to Clausen, Warner says she neglected to report the thefts out of "inexperience" rather than a deliberate attempt to conceal. Her predecessor, Steve Favors, also offered a series of excuses--new computer software, staff turnover, lost accounting entries--for the shortcomings that led to financial statements that failed legislative audit standards in 1998, 1999 and 2000.

Most GSU supporters could sympathize with administrators who claim to be overwhelmed by a complex accounting process. What they can't understand are administrators who don't follow a simple rule: Call the law when someone steals public money.

University of Louisiana Monroe vice president Richard Baxter's suit against the TruthatULM website appears to be on the back burner since the announcement of the web master's identity a month ago.

The ULM vice president filed two lawsuits against the Internet service provider, the first nearly a year ago, to force disclosure of the author's identity. Then in April he filed defamation action against six John Does he named as authors.

Sources on campus say Baxter, who holds a doctorate in mass communications, cannot believe a quiet associate professor could mount a more effective public relations campaign than the high-cost official campaigns he directed as vice president for external affairs and advancement. His Baton Rouge lawyers have not even bothered to amend the lawsuit to name the web master, John Scott of the economics department.

But with pink slips going out to non-tenure-track faculty all over campus, the vice president may prefer to lie low. His record in advancement, i.e., fund raising, did not earn rave reviews by the consulting team hired to evaluate the university before new president James Cofer came on board.

This is more than just a tight budget year for ULM. Cofer needs the administrative freedom of exigency without a formal declaration. Exigency is academia's way of taking bankruptcy with the debtor in control of reorganization.

It could be that Baxter and his lawyers are still convinced there are actually six people who contributed to TruthatULM and are looking for deep pockets to make a return on their legal efforts. A column here a year ago may have contributed to that impression.

We phrased the column, about meeting the Truth Squad, carefully, intentionally implying there were a number of contributors to help conceal Scott's identity. (We did prepare enchiladas, lay in libations and put a leaf in the dining room table in case we had to feed eight. Answering the door to only one person came as a surprise.)

Critics will say that was unprofessional. Perhaps. But we never claimed strict adherence to anyone else's definition of professionalism.

The suggestion TruthatULM numbered several authors certainly raised the paranoia level in the ULM administration. And whenever someone was threatened or unjustly accused of participation, it just created another hole in the administration's sieve.

Any way you look at it, TruthatULM was effective beyond Scott's wildest dreams. It provided more factual information and public documents than a spinmeister like Baxter could counteract. And it continued until former president Lawson Swearingen resigned.

Maybe some day ULM will give Scott a medal. But after a dozen years of inept management, the university can't afford to buy one now.

Will GSU make it?

If we've answered it once, we've answered it a dozen times this week alone. Will Grambling State produce an auditable financial statement on time and get reaccredited?

By now no one is betting on the success of the University of Louisiana System's announced plan to let acting president Neari Warner straighten out the mess before naming a new president. Success hinges on an auditable financial statement, so two sets of outside consultants--accounting and computer management--have been on campus full time since April 1.

Of course, the recent debacle about failing to report as many as seven thefts since May 8 (see story Page 1) doesn't help matters.

Even so, producing a final version of the financial statement just two weeks after the end of the fiscal year (June 30) will be tough. The efficient and well-organized Louisiana Tech staff would find it tough. GSU hasn't succeeded in doing that within two months the past four years, and it's hired outside consultants the last three ... at a cost of more than $2 million.

Everyone in Louisiana is holding out hope. And public officials proclaim the university's progress. But it's like this:

Say you have to be in Dallas Saturday. A flight leaves Shreveport for Dallas every day at noon. It takes an hour to drive to the airport and another hour to get through the security check. So whichever flight you take this week, you've got to leave by 10 o'clock to be on time.

Your bags are packed Monday, but you decide to wait till Tuesday. Then you get confused and head east to the Monroe airport instead.

Wednesday one thing after another keeps you busy until 11:30, and the flight leaves Shreveport before you get to Minden.

Same thing Thursday. The baby sitter doesn't show up, the battery is dead, and you just can't make it on time.

That leaves one last chance. Friday morning you hadn't slept well for worrying, but you hit the road by 10.

More bad luck. The car won't get out of first gear, so your top speed is 20 mph. Still you press on, making progress in the right direction but short of a miracle with little chance to make it to the airport by noon.

Nor will the GSU administration--despite more than a half million dollars of outside help--be able to produce an auditable financial statement by July 15 short of a miracle.

There's lots more in the dead-tree edition. Only $20/year.

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