Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 11, 1994 TAG: 9406170129
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By ALLISON BLAKE and RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The review comes nearly 15 months after President Donald N. Dedmon reimbursed the state $2,862.56 for expenses such as personal phone calls and Federal Express bills made over several years. Those expenses were discovered during a state audit that went unreported to the school's board of visitors.
John H. Huston, the state's internal auditor, said his office completed its investigation of alleged financial abuses by Dedmon last March and concluded there was no attempt by Dedmon to defraud the state.
"If there was any critical error made, it was that we should have been informed. But there were no criminal acts," said Bernard C. Wampler, the board's vice rector and chairman of the board's audit subcommittee.
"I thought we were to see all the audits, but I have never seen it," Wampler said.
Al Pearson, representing faculty members who gave the board the stack of documents to be audited, said Friday that $2,800 "trivializes the amount involved."
Dedmon, who was Radford's president for 22 years and is credited with much of the university's growth, retired Thursday after the board met for over six hours in closed session to discuss the documents, brought to it by faculty members, that allegedly show financial mismanagement.
"Absolutely no one on the board of visitors asked him to resign," said Wampler. "Absolutely not - [there was] no deal. No pressure and no deals.
"There is no doubt in my mind he did it because he thought it was the best thing for the university."
Efforts to reach Dedmon, who has been ill and had surgery this spring, were unsuccessful. Debbie Brown, university spokeswoman, said he would not give interviews.
His departure is effective June 15. For 14 months, he will take medical leave, after which he retires.
Charles Owens, vice president for academic affairs, will become temporary acting president. Brown said it wasn't known when the board will appoint a presidential search committee.
Wampler said the university audit, by staff auditor Bill Shorter, will be exhaustive, possibly expensive, and may take weeks.
Every phone call and hundreds of Federal Express charges will be checked.
There is also a receipt for a VCR that cost "maybe $300" and apparently replaced a VCR destroyed by Hurricane Hugo at the president's house, Wampler said.
"Mr. Shorter has instructions: 'You are to go identify that VCR and find out where it is. If it's not in the president's home, then somebody has to account for it,''' Wampler said.
The discretionary fund draws its money from soft drink and snack machines. "In industry, we call that petty cash," Wampler said.
"It's at the discretion of the president of the university, but he can't spend it for his personal use," he said.
Everything in the president's house except personal belongings is owned by the university, he said. Dedmon reimbursed the state $2,862.56 with a personal check on April 29, 1993 for items such as personal phone calls and Federal Express charges that were charged improperly his discretionary fund.
Huston said the internal audit of Dedmon's office revealed that an employee of the president's office was responsible for separating personal expenses from business expenses. That employee also was authorized to use Dedmon's personal credit card and had signed checks from Dedmon to pay the president's personal expenses at the office. But Huston said the staff member "just didn't do a good job of screening Dr. Dedmon's expenses."
"When Dr. Dedmon was presented with the facts, he was very embarrassed and apologetic and he repaid the money immediately," Huston said.
Huston said his office did not notify Radford's board of vistors about the investigation because there was no evidence of fraud," just a breakdown in internal control."
Brown, the university spokeswoman, confirmed Huston's statements but said more than one employee was responsible for the task of determining which of Dedmon's expenses were personal and which were business-related. Brown said Dedmon's aide, Charles Woods, as well as "a couple other people in the [president's] office" handled the task.
Brown called the job of determining whether the president's expenses were business or personal "sort of a hard judgment call at times."
by CNB