The University of Iowa has identified and reported to the state unauthorized transactions by a faculty member.
The university first identified the transactions in November 2016 through its regular review of expense reimbursements. University administrators and members of the Office of Internal Audit, Board of Regents, State of Iowa conducted a preliminary review before requesting assistance from the State of Iowa Auditor of State, which released its report today.
https://auditor.iowa.gov/sites/default/files/audit_reports/1761-8010-BE03.pdf
The investigation centers on transactions related to scientific conferences organized by Dr. Michael Flatté, professor and former director of the Optical Science Technology Center in the UI Department of Physics and Astronomy. Dr. Flatté listed the university as a conference sponsor on three separate occasions without prior authorization and collected registration fees through a private company he owns. He also received reimbursement from the university for conferences-related expenses. The audit finds $47,203.81 in reimbursements for the unauthorized conference expenses.
In addition Dr. Flatté collected $44,161.69 in registration fees used to administer the conference that would have been deposited in university accounts had the conferences been approved. The auditor’s office concluded that almost all of these revenues were used to cover conference expenses and that the balance was deposited with the university.
The state auditor also raised concerns about the purchase of three assistive robots by the faculty member for a total of $8,440.17.
The university has taken appropriate action to protect the interests of the university and is reviewing possible disciplinary measures. Individual personnel actions are considered confidential matters.
The University of Iowa takes seriously its fiduciary responsibility to spend taxpayer and research dollars wisely and has several procedures in place to ensure this happens. Travel and procurement policies are outlined in the UI’s Operations Manual and purchases are reviewed by highly trained staff.
The audit offers three recommendations relating to expense reimbursement procedures and conflict of interest disclosures and the UI is evaluating each recommendation individually. The university recently began to centralize department transaction experts under University Shared Services to reduce administrative costs, minimize redundancies, increase compliance and decrease errors. The new structure followed the Board of Regents efficiency review known as TIER.