Editorial: Demanding more detail

Sunday, Dec. 3, 2006 | 7:43 a.m.

The Nevada Board of Regents has dropped the hammer on the UNLV Research Foundation, calling for a more detailed accounting of how money is spent by that foundation as well as others throughout the state's university system.

A recent audit, prompted by stories in the Las Vegas Sun, showed deficiencies in how the Research Foundation's former executive director Tom Williams accounted for nearly $84,000 in travel and meal expenses. Among the criticisms was that the meal receipts were not detailed, including whether alcoholic beverages were included in the reimbursement claims. State and federal guidelines prohibit reimbursement for alcohol.

Williams told the Board of Regents on Thursday that he knew the rules and that he does not drink alcohol, the Sun reports, but regents Steve Sisolak and Howard Rosenberg said that wasn't the point. "It's a matter of being above suspicion," Rosenberg added.

And the Research Foundation - a private fundraising arm of UNLV that receives mostly federal funding - hasn't exactly been a model of accountability. This most recent audit came after another one two months ago, also prompted by Sun stories, that showed the foundation's Institute for Security Studies has failed to accomplish its goal of making UNLV a leading academic authority on anti-terrorism technology and homeland security. The security institute received nearly $9 million in funding, most of which came from the federal government.

Williams, who has since been transferred to another position at UNLV, defended his bookkeeping by saying he adhered to the less stringent, albeit legal, federal guidelines rather than the more strict rules of the university system. But regents say that is not good enough for institutions that are run under the auspices of public universities and receive state, as well as federal, funding.

We agree. When it comes to spending taxpayers' money, accurate accounting matters, right down to the penny. The regents have called for a new expense reporting policy for foundations of all state universities. Such a policy cannot come too soon.