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ALBANY — College costs are going through the roof — with the help of some big shots at the State University of New York who’ve been running up bills for booze, hockey tickets, parties and overseas travel.
A new audit by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli found about $4 million in “questionable” expenses at SUNY’s vaunted Research Foundation at a time when the university is raising tuition.
The SUNY Research Foundation fired one of its top officials earlier this year for billing the organization more than $256,000 in personal expenses and unjustified travel costs from November 2007 to last November, according to DiNapoli’s audit, released yesterday.
Auditors found that former $148,815-a-year Buffalo State College operations manager Edgar H. Turkle III used foundation money to cover $22,225 for personal Buffalo Sabres NHL season tickets. He also tapped SUNY funds for a birthday bash for his wife, an Apple computer, iPad and iPhones, Godiva chocolates, groceries, high-end dining and hotels.
Turkle socked the university’s foundation for $125,342 for at least 29 foreign trips, mostly to Asia and including upgrades to United Air’s Red Carpet Clb, four extra days in Bangkok, Thailand, after a conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malyasia, and some expenses for family members.
Turkle said he often accompanied Buffalo State faculty members on trips because “I am the guy. No other way to put it,” according to the audit.
DiNapoli’s office referred its findings on Turkle to the Albany County District Attorney’s Office.
State auditors flagged nearly $27,968 in “questionable” charges from July 2008 through January 2012 for booze at events and a private club membership for SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher.
DiNapoli also referred to the state attorney general what he called questionable time and attendance by former state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno’s daughter, Susan, when she held an $84,000-a-year job for the foundation until 2009.
“For too long, SUNY Research Foundation employees took advantage of lax oversight to cheat taxpayers, skirt state laws and violate the foundation’s own policies,” DiNapoli said. “The foundation needs to recover all misspent funds immediately and fundamentally change how it operates.”
SUNY defended the $27,968 in charges to the chancellor’s account as “reasonable and appropriate,” noting SUNY “hosts events . . . that may include food and beverage expenses.”
The audit also criticized the foundation for doling out $665,000 in incentives and salaries to hire a general counsel, Sherry Holland, who was fired within a year.
And auditors faulted foundation officials for improperly awarding nearly $3 million in non-competitively bid contracts.
Zimpher said the comptroller’s findings “are confirmation that change was necessary,” calling the foundation “a markedly improved organization” after two years of “the most comprehensive review” in its history.