Audit firm will start with Sweet

The school president said his entertainment expenses were within the norm.
& lt;a href=mailto:milliken@vindy.com & gt;By PETER MILLIKEN & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The board of trustees of Youngstown State University will spend about $1 million over five years to have an outside firm do its internal auditing.
The firm's first assignment will be to probe the travel and entertainment spending of YSU President David Sweet
The board Friday hired Packer Thomas of Youngstown to do the auditing beginning May 1.
The firm will be paid about $200,000 a year for five years, said Ron Cole, YSU spokesman. The board decided to hire an outside firm to strengthen independence and objectivity in internal auditing, Cole said. Internal auditing was previously done by university employees, he said.
Hiring of an outside firm for internal auditing had been recommended Sept. 24 by the board's finance and facilities committee.
After the board hired Packer Thomas, its audit subcommittee assigned the firm to conduct "without any presumption whatsoever of wrongdoing, a special audit of presidential travel and entertainment reimbursements."
Sweet had asked the audit subcommittee to review his spending and expense reports after The Jambar, a student-run campus newspaper, recently ran articles questioning Sweet's travel and entertainment expenses between September 2002 and this January.
The Jambar reported that Sweet and his wife spent nearly $19,000 on travel, $35,800 for parties at his Liberty residence, about $2,000 for flowers at those parties and about $1,600 on alcoholic beverages.
Sweet is annually paid $203,520, plus a $50,000 housing allowance and a $7,200 auto allowance. His contract also entitles him to reimbursement for reasonable business-related travel and entertainment expenses.
The audit subcommittee's resolution said its members would make no comment on the matter until Packer Thomas delivers the report.
Expenses defended
"I believe the expenditures are within the bounds of policy and the arrangements with the board of trustees," Sweet said. These expenditures have contributed to raising more than $15 million for the university over the past 33/4 years, he said.
After the subcommittee meeting, Sweet defended his travel and entertainment spending as "well within the norms" for university presidents and said much of what The Jambar reported was "taken out of context."
Sweet said he has taken some 32 trips to Columbus since he became YSU president July 1, 2000, usually driving himself there. On one occasion, he spent $417 to hire a car and driver to take him there, and that was because he was leaving YSU late and preparing en route to testify in a court case related to the Wick Pollock Inn, where millions of dollars were at stake, he said. It would have been more expensive for a YSU staff member to drive him there, he added.
The $253 The Jambar said he spent on a blooming plant was actually for an entire array of cut flowers used as decorations in his residence for a series of parties during the Christmas season, he said. YSU food service purchased 12 bottles of wine, not for one event, but for a series of events at his residence, he said.
As for alcohol consumed in his university-related travels, he said it likely amounted to about $70 over 17 months. "If they're university-related business, reimbursement is called for," he said. All the alcohol consumed at home or during his travels was purchased with nonstate dollars, he said.