
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 12, 1994                    TAG: 9406120061 
SECTION: LOCAL                     PAGE: B7    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: 940612                                 LENGTH: RADFORD

RADFORD TO AUDIT USE OF FUND BY RETIRING PRESIDENT

{LEAD} Radford University plans to check every phone call and hundreds of Federal Express charges in a review of its departing president's discretionary fund.

President Donald N. Dedmon, who was Radford's president for 22 years and is credited with much of its growth, announced his retirement Thursday. His action came after the school's board of visitors met for more than six hours in a closed session to discuss documents, brought to it by faculty members, that allegedly show financial mismanagement.

{REST} The internal review comes nearly 15 months after Dedmon reimbursed the state $2,862.56 for expenses such as personal phone calls and Federal Express bills made over several years. A state audit that went unreported to the board uncovered the expenses.

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.

Huston said the audit 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.''

Bernard C. Wampler, the board's vice rector and chairman of its audit subcommittee, said no one on the board asked Dedmon to resign.

``If there was any critical error made, it was that we should have been informed. But there were no criminal acts,'' Wampler said.

Huston said his office did not notify Radford's board of visitors about the investigation because there was no evidence of fraud, just a breakdown in internal control.

The discretionary fund draws its money from soft-drink and snack machines. It is at the discretion of the university president but cannot be spent for personal use, Wampler said.

by CNB