Secretive facility under fire

Tuesday, June 20, 2006 | 2:23 a.m.

Expressing sentiments ranging from concern to embarrassment, university system officials said Monday that they want a full accounting of how a secretive UNLV counterterrorism institute has spent millions of taxpayer dollars.

The calls for scrutiny follow a Sun story on Sunday detailing how the UNLV Institute for Security Studies has little to show for the $8.9 million, mostly in federal money, that it has received over the past three years.

Jim Rogers, chancellor of the university system, said he intends to ask incoming UNLV President David Ashley to "look into this and any other related matters" after he takes office on July 1.

"It has caused me concern," Rogers said. "We're not going to whitewash anything or cover up anything."

Two university regents, Steve Sisolak and Mark Alden, said they also will push for the Board of Regents to conduct an internal audit of the institute's dealings.

"I'm embarrassed and ashamed that taxpayer money got put to this use," Sisolak said. "People have to know what has been produced for all of this money other than a bunch of people getting high salaries."

Alden added: "It appears to be featherbedding. It looks like they're taking care of their own little group. We need a full explanation of what they've been doing with the money."

Mark Rudin, acting UNLV vice president for research and graduate studies, said Monday that the university would cooperate in any review of the institute.

The Sun reported Sunday that the institute - since winning board approval and applying for its initial federal funding three years ago - has abandoned several of its key objectives and has come up short on others, including a pledge to make UNLV a leading academic authority on homeland security.

The institute currently has no academic program and primarily has been conducting the kind of technical lab research performed elsewhere in the country. It also has handed out much of its homeland security preparedness work to private consultants, some of whom once worked with the institute's interim director, Thomas Williams, a former Energy Department manager at the Nevada Test Site.

Several of the institute's 14 employees, who records show receive annual salaries ranging from $79,000 to $160,000, formerly worked for Bechtel Nevada, the private firm that helps the government manage the Test Site.

Rogers said the institute's conduct may be part of other management troubles during the tenure of outgoing UNLV President Carol Harter, whose resignation Rogers orchestrated earlier this year.

"People know I've had great concern about the management style at UNLV," he said.

The regents are likely to discuss the institute at their August meeting, then take up a more thorough examination at a later meeting once any investigations are completed, Rogers said.

The chancellor said he wants Ashley to deliver a report on his findings to the regents and release it to the public.

Ashley, the executive vice chancellor and provost at the University of California, Merced, said Monday he did not know enough about the UNLV institute to comment.

But he added: "If the allegations in your story are true, it's something I'd certainly have to look at."