RALEIGH N.C. – The ex-director of a program based at North Carolina Central University designed to reduce the achievement gap appears to have skimmed more than $1 million in program funds and used nearly $290,000 for her personal use, according to a state audit Tuesday that referred the case to prosecutors.
State Auditor Beth Wood’s office released findings involving the Durham school, which served as headquarters and lead campus for the Historically Minority Colleges and Universities Consortium that included a dozen historically Black schools. The consortium offers tutoring and intensive studies to public school students and grants to faith-based and community organizations opportunities for community service.
Authorities say the investigative review found that the former director diverted $1,000,811 over six years that originated from local school systems, nonprofit groups, individuals, N.C. Central and its foundations and into a bank account discovered by an internal audit by the school only after she was fired in 2009.
The state audit determined the ex-director converted $287,716 to herself through checks, wire transfers, ATM withdrawals and other purchases, according to the findings. While some expenditures appeared related to the consortium’s goals, others were itemized for women’s clothing, car repairs and hair care products and a personal computer delivered to the former director’s home, the report said.
“We believe that all expenditures from the undisclosed bank account should be considered questionable” because the account was opened without proper authorization and with knowledge of few people at N.C. Central, the auditors wrote.
Another person identified as the former N.C. Central University provost and ex-dean also received $61,959 from the undisclosed bank account without providing any services for the consortium, the report said. It added that the former executive director should have deposited funds into an authorized state account and may have broken the law by putting them in the undisclosed account.
“It appears that the former executive director engaged in activities that fit the definition of a skimming scheme as described in professional literature to benefit herself and other university consortium staff and contractors,” the audit read in sending the case to the Durham County District Attorney’s Office, the State Bureau of Investigation and state and federal revenue departments.
