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Audit shows lax finances and state law violations at New College
New College of Florida overpaid teachers and administrators, accidentally paid vendors more than once and failed to collect more than $160,000 in student payments, according to a state report that chronicles the school’s recent financial activities over the past few years.
The practices were among several negative findings — including violations of state law — in the university’s most recent operational audit by the state auditor general.
The report, which was filed last week, audited transactions and records primarily between January and December 2022, before Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed six new trustees to the university’s board, which he soon fired in hopes of overhauling the school. It also included some records that led to or resulted from financial activity in 2022.
The audit points to a number of problems.
Two findings indicated that New College violated state law by providing extra compensation payments to faculty and paying administrators more than the limit required by state law.
The report said the university had determined that some faculty members had inadvertently received an additional biweekly salary during the 2020-21 year. To equalize this, New College made a one-time payment in July 2023 — after the new board and president were installed — to 25 eligible faculty members who did not receive those payments.
The payments, however, constituted extra compensation that is prohibited by state law because of the way they were provided. The university also failed to properly report the compensation and made erroneous contributions to retirement accounts.
State law also limits state funds from paying administrative employees more than $200,000.
The college paid former president Patricia Okker $390,391 during the 2021-22 fiscal year, including $236,073 from state funds. When the board fired her and amended her contract last year, she began a sabbatical and received $384,868. Of that, $231,092 came from state funds. It also pointed to another administrator who received $18,874 above that limit.
The report says university officials agreed that the New College Foundation should have reimbursed the university for funds over the $200,000 limit and would develop procedures to “reduce the risk of recurrence of oversight.” It says that as of June 18, no reimbursement had been made.
Another finding indicated that the university needed greater control over contracts and payments, pointing to a case where the university contracted with a disaster recovery services provider.
New College overpaid the vendor by nearly $15,000 and “did not always reconcile vendor invoice costs with university-authorized costs before payments were made,” the audit said. In some cases, charges were duplicated, and while the report said the university corrected some overpayments, it failed to “promptly submit” the corrected invoices to the appropriate entities.
The report also said the university did not always make timely efforts to collect payments from students with delinquent accounts. They found that 173 students owed a total of $163,626.
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The university wrote in its response that it had relaxed its billing policies due to hardships caused by the pandemic, but had returned to its pre-pandemic policies.
The audit also called for greater controls over the use of purchase cards, “negotiating, monitoring, and documenting the reasonableness of the construction management entity’s general condition costs,” and demonstrating that subcontractors were properly licensed before beginning construction work.
The university acknowledged all the findings and began taking corrective steps to establish new protocols, according to the report.
Every state university is periodically audited by the auditor general’s office. Last year, a performance audit of the University of Florida found negatively that the university’s records “did not always demonstrate that the university properly contracted for small construction projects or monitored projects to ensure that required bids were obtained” for certain commercial packages that exceeded $75,000. USF also had a discovery, which had raised $8.6 million in excess distance learning rates.
In a letter to the auditor general, New College President Richard Corcoran wrote that the recommendations “will support the university’s efforts to maintain a strong control environment, compliance with all Florida statutes and efficient financial operations.”