Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Regent ‘baffled’ by lack of documents

A UNLV counterterrorism institute's censoring of a $2.5 million federal grant application has raised questions of sloppy record-keeping on the part of the secretive organization - and in some cases, disbelief in the explanations of its actions.

University officials said this week that the Institute for Security Studies had no records on file of its dealings with several outside companies, including confidentiality agreements that it claims were signed last month with two companies that asked to withhold the release of proprietary information in the grant application.

UNLV General Counsel Richard Linstrom said Thursday the agreements were in the hands of the companies, a practice he said was not unusual in business circles.

But the institute's lack of records brought a swift condemnation from university system Regent Steve Sisolak, who said he had trouble believing some of the stories being put out by institute officials.

"They claim to be involved in national security and anti-terrorism, and they don't get copies of documents they supposedly sign? That baffles my imagination," Sisolak said.

"To have millions of dollars to funnel through there with no internal guidelines is totally and completely irresponsible. That's no way to conduct business.

"This calls into question their entire record-keeping system," added Sisolak, who heads the regents' audit committee.

Concerns about the institute - which has received $8.9 million, mostly in federal money, since its creation three years ago - will be aired at a special regents meeting next Friday. The institute has been criticized for not living up to its promise to make UNLV a leading academic authority on homeland security.

The fight over whether to make public the entire 26-page grant application surfaced last week after UNLV and institute officials blacked out large portions of a copy of the document requested by the Sun. The application was submitted in its uncensored form to the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration.

After Sisolak and university system Chancellor Jim Rogers put pressure on UNLV to make public the entire application, university officials said they would do so if the Energy Department waived its guidelines covering the release of proprietary information.

But on Monday the Energy Department said the censorship decision was UNLV's. The next day, UNLV officials found another reason to withhold the information, saying that three companies looking to do business with the institute had stepped forward to assert their right to keep secret the proprietary aspects of their dealings with the agency.

By Wednesday, at UNLV's request, the three companies had faxed letters stating their proprietary claims.

Two companies - Senteras of Appleton, Wis., and Agora Communications Group of Fairfax, Va. - attached copies of confidentiality agreements that they said were signed with the institute last month.

The Senteras agreement, which included a June 23 date, was signed by company Chief Executive Stephen Luebke Jr., who declined to comment, and institute Deputy Director James Sudderth.

The signatures of Sudderth and Agora Communications Chief Executive Fred Kleibacker, who could not be reached for comment, appear on the agreement with Agora. A June 26 signing date is listed there, but earlier in the document the effective date was listed as June 24, 2005.

After noticing the date discrepancy, Sisolak questioned the authenticity of the document and why UNLV could not provide him with copies of both agreements.

"This looks extremely suspicious to me," Sisolak said.

Linstrom said the ISS told him that the discrepancy was the result of a typographical error.

On Wednesday, the Sun had asked Linstrom for copies of the contracts and agreements on file at the institute with those two companies and a third one, Defense Group Inc., of Santa Monica, Calif., which also was seeking to block the release of information in the grant application.

But Linstrom reported back Thursday that the institute had told him it had no records on file involving the three companies. He said the institute was checking its archives for any e-mails that might confirm its dealings with the firms.

Defense Group , Linstrom said, had not signed a confidentiality agreement with the institute, but now wants one. The agreements with Senteras and Agora were kept by the companies and no copies were made by the institute, he said.

He also said the agreements were not reviewed by his office or by any lawyers on behalf of the institute.

Linstrom said that while he wished Sudderth had made copies of the agreements, it is not unusual for companies or individuals protected by such agreements to retain them and return copies to the other parties at a later date.

In this case, Linstrom said, the companies simply had not gotten around to returning copies to the institute by the time of last week's flap over the censored grant application. Sudderth, he said, insisted that he signed both documents in June.

The institute, he said, does not yet have a formal business contract with any of the three companies because it is waiting to see how much money will be available .

UNLV and the institute intend to keep confidential all of the proprietary information on the application that the companies asked be withheld, Linstrom said.

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