Dive Brief:
- Following revelations that the University of North Texas misspent $83.5 million in state funds over a decade, including $80.6 million on employee benefits, the Texas Gov. Rick Perry has ordered all state universities to review their benefits payment practices.
- From 2004 to early 2014, UNT should have received $207.9 million in state-funded benefits; it collected an extra 39%, the Dallas Morning News reported. The university, which has an annual budget of $520 million, also disclosed that it overstated its financial position by as much as $23 million.
- Several UNT finance administrators have been replaced, and the school’s leaders are overhauling their financial reporting and accounting practices.
Dive Insight:
The fact that this was only revealed after a decade, and that no one at the state, regents, or university level knew or disclosed the spending issues, is raising a lot of questions. The Texas auditor’s office, which reviews public university and state agency benefits spending, reported in a 2010 audit that schools and agencies “generally complied with the requirement to report employee benefit expenses proportionately to funding sources,” the Morning News reported.
