Editorial: Credibility lacking in audit

Thursday, Aug. 3, 2006 | 7:58 a.m.

Unattributed security institute audit is hardly a reliable source of information

Two Nevada university system regents have dismissed a recently released audit of UNLV's troubled Institute for Security Studies, saying the audit lacks credibility.

According to a story by the Las Vegas Sun on Tuesday, the audit also lacks signatures and an explanation of what procedures were used and to whom the auditors spoke in conducting their investigation. In essence, the 14-page report "means nothing," Regent Mark Alden told the Sun.

The audit, the first of several to be conducted, was commissioned by the UNLV Research Foundation in response to criticism that the publicly funded counterterrorism institute wasn't making good on the objectives and goals it set three years ago.

The institute has received nearly $9 million in public money but hasn't created a promised advanced degree program to study terrorism issues and hasn't produced any counterterrorism technological advances. Other main objectives have been dropped completely, including one to create a laboratory for studying organisms that can be used in weapons of mass destruction.

The foundation's audit, released over the weekend, is one of several that have been called for since the Sun first brought these problems to light June 18. The Board of Regents and the Nuclear Security Administration are also conducting investigations.

The foundation's audit concluded that the institute should be supervised by UNLV, rather than the foundation, and recommended it more closely adhere to its original goals. Regents are to meet Friday to discuss the institute's shortcomings, including its failure to take steps to make UNLV a leading academic authority on homeland security, as promised.

We hope the regents demand that UNLV find someone to audit this program independently and more thoroughly. An unsigned 14-page report produced by the foundation that runs the institute is not a credible investigation. And should regents decide to place the program under UNLV's supervision, it must be with the understanding that the program's dealings and contracts will be open to public scrutiny as part of a publicly funded university.