State probes $500,000 grant to troubled institute at UNLV

Friday, Aug. 11, 2006 | 7:49 a.m.

Nevada emergency management officials are investigating the circumstances under which the Institute for Security Studies obtained a $500,000 grant to study the state's vulnerability to terrorism.

Frank Siracusa, chief of the state Department of Public Safety's Emergency Management Division, said Thursday that his agency thought it awarded the federal homeland security money last year to UNLV, a public institution.

In fact, the funds went to the UNLV Research Foundation, a private, university-associated fundraising organization that runs the institute. The institute then farmed out most of the $500,000 to a private contractor, which conducted the study under the institute's supervision.

"When it was reported in the media that the institute was not part of UNLV, that raised a red flag for us," Siracusa said.

He said his agency is trying to determine whether the grant, which was made at the request of the Nevada Homeland Security Commission, met appropriate federal guidelines. Those guidelines allow states to allocate their share of federal homeland security funding only to state, local and tribal agencies, as well as public universities, Siracusa said.

The institute, created in 2003, has been under fire from regents and university system officials after disclosures in the Sun that it has not fulfilled the promises it made to turn UNLV into a leading academic authority on homeland security. The institute received $8.9 million, mostly in federal funds, but failed to keep the government and the regents fully abreast of how the money was being used.

Of the $500,000 from the state, $465,000 went to an out-of-state security firm, which officials Thursday confirmed was Keystone International Inc. of Albuquerque.

The study was completed and turned over to state homeland security officials in April. But except for an executive summary, officials have kept the findings confidential, citing security concerns. The institute cites the study as one of its biggest accomplishments.

UNLV spokesman Gian Galassi said Thursday that Mark Rudin, interim UNLV vice president for research and graduate dean, would not comment about the state's investigation without first speaking with Siracusa.

But the latest disclosure involving the institute's business dealings has prompted university system Regent Steve Sisolak to renew a call for an independent audit of the institute.

"I'm a firm believer that the integrity of the university is at stake here," Sisolak said. "The university and the taxpayers deserve no less than a complete, unbiased, independent and thorough audit."

Sisolak said he finds it "troubling" that someone may have been misleading state officials about the institute's "reporting lines."

"I've got a real issue with that," he said.

At a special meeting last week, the regents opted against authorizing an independent audit until separate UNLV and university system audits are completed.

A week before the meeting, UNLV officials provided regents with a "performance assessment" of the embattled institute in which they acknowledged that they did not place it under the direct control of the university's Graduate College as promised three years ago.

Instead, the Research Foundation and the institute did their best to distance themselves from UNLV.

That is evident in a clause they inserted in some of their business agreements with private security firms. "Contractor hereby acknowledges that UNLVRF is a separate nonprofit, educational and charitable corporate entity," the clause states.

"It does not have the power to pledge state of Nevada and or University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) funds or credit.

"Further, the state of Nevada and/or UNLV cannot assume any debts of UNLVRF, and the state of Nevada and/or UNLV shall not be liable for any debts or tort liability arising from any contracts made between UNLVRF and third parties, including, but not limited to, any debts of liability arising from this agreement."

According to transcripts of a Jan. 6, 2005, Homeland Security Commission meeting, institute officials and associates repeatedly referred to themselves as being one and the same with UNLV, as they sought the $500,000.

Eight months later, Commission Chairman Dale Carrison described the institute as being part of UNLV in a letter he sent to the Emergency Management Division formally requesting $400,000 of that money.

Carrison could not be reached for comment, but Sheriff Bill Young, a member of the Homeland Security Commission, said he and other members were under the impression the institute was part of UNLV.

"That has always been our understanding," Young said .

In copies of the Emergency Management Division's grant awards obtained by the Sun, the official "subgrantee" is listed as UNLV, not the institute or the Research Foundation.

UNLV's address also is listed on the documents, not the Research Foundation's off-campus address.

But alongside Siracusa's signature is the signature of Tom Williams, who at the time was the executive director of the Research Foundation.

Kamala Carmazzi, Siracusa's top deputy, said the Emergency Management Division has launched a program audit to determine whether the $500,000 awarded for the vulnerability study complied with federal Homeland Security Department guidelines.

"We have questions that need to be answered," Carmazzi said.

One of those questions, Carmazzi said, is whether Williams had written authority to sign an agreement like this for UNLV.

"That was the entity we were under the impression we were subcontracting funds to," she said.

Although the grant was allocated to UNLV, Carmazzi said, a preliminary review of records shows checks were made out to the Research Foundation.

Carmazzi said she was told that a foundation analyst had asked that all checks involving the grant be made out to the foundation, and no one in Emergency Management questioned that because they assumed the foundation was part of UNLV.

Although it is incorporated as a private, nonprofit organization, the Research Foundation is not totally independent of UNLV. According to its bylaws, it answers to a nine-member board of directors that includes UNLV's president and other university officers.