UNT president didn’t know extent of financial woes
By Monica S. Nagy, Fort Worth Star-Telegram | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
In the past several months, UNT has reported an excess of
Last week, Gov.
UNT also overstated its finances by
"So I didn't walk in with my chin up," Smatresk told the
Smatresk said he is not sure how much the university will have to pay back, but he's proposed 2 to 3 percent budget cuts for fiscal 2015. The budget will be submitted to UNT System next week for review, and won't be approved by the
UNT's budget for next year is expected to be about
"I can't imagine the state wants to see our university unable to deliver on its mission," Smatresk said of a repayment plan. "... I can't imagine the state would want to compromise that. I can't speculate what kind of repayment we would have."
Perry pens letter
Smatresk said the UNT System Chancellor and
In the meantime, the governor sent out a letter last Thursday mandating
The letter reads, "Based on recent audit findings at the
He went on to say that each university must have its internal auditor review its state benefit practices if the state auditor has not done so in the past three years.
"The inappropriate and inaccurate accounting of taxpayer funds by the
"The results of the UNT audit underscore
She said the university is in compliance.
Cuts on the way
Proposed budget cuts for UNT include 2 percent from academic units and 3 percent from administrative units overall, but not across the board.
Department vice presidents helped make the cuts on things like travel, office expenses and overtime, school officials said.
The university is not cutting positions, and will not cut anything that directly impacts the quality of education and student services, said
Academic affairs made 3 percent cuts, and the university will be "lean" when it comes to hiring any new staff next year, Smatresk said.
Some small-scale construction projects and will be put off, and the athletics department will also have to cut back while doing more, he said.
Smatresk said his four-year presidency at the
"Compared to some of the things I've had to deal with in the past, I'm going to call this 'garden-variety,' and that doesn't mean it's not significant. So I'm not trying to diminish what has occurred. What I am telling you is that we put a good team together and we know how to get ourselves back on track," Smatresk said.
Three finance officials resigned in light of the findings. The university has since hired a new vice president for finance and administration, an assistant vice chancellor for financial planning and reporting, and a vice chancellor of finance.
Smatresk said he is ready to work through the woes, including a lowered bond rating by
"We had an inadequate control function, and inadequate audit functions, which are of course related. When those functions are missing ... unfortunate things can happen and its a cautionary tale. I assure you we are on it and it will never happen again," Smatresk said.
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