Auditors’ findings that Morgan State University made up to $2.4 million in “questionable” and duplicate payments to Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. may lead the state attorney general to launch a criminal investigation into the matter, according to a Baltimore Sun report.
The auditors, who work for the Maryland state legislature, found contract irregularities with Morgan State’s management of some of its building projects. Auditors found that the university did not receive state approval for some of the spending and overpaid two unnamed employees a total of $121,400.
The main focus of the audit was a contract with Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. that the university padded with a $3.1 million “allowance” for cost overruns on other projects, without obtaining state approval to do so.
The audit also showed that the HBCU did not meet its goals for minority-owned business participation in campus building projects.
Morgan State officials, in a written response to the audit, expressed regret for the school’s “failure to specifically alert the Board of Public Works about the $3.1 million allowance.”
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