DOE begins institute probe

Jeff German and Steve Kanigher

Saturday, June 24, 2006 | 7:50 a.m.

The Energy Department has launched an investigation into a UNLV counterterrorism institute to determine whether it has been properly spending millions of dollars in grants it has received from the federal agency.

The inquiry follows a June 18 Sun story that found that the UNLV Institute for Security Studies has abandoned several of its key objectives and has come up short on others, including a promise to make UNLV a leading academic authority in the war on terrorism.

"Based on the media accounts, we want to find out from them (the institute) where they are, what the status of the programs are and how that reflects what they have been telling us," said Darwin Morgan, a spokesman for the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration, which runs the Nevada Test Site.

More than three-quarters of the $8.9 million that the institute has received has come from the Energy Department. Congress also has approved another $5 million for the institute.

Morgan said Friday that his office is drafting questions that will be forwarded to the institute soon.

Three separate audits of the institute also are under way or soon will be, officials said this week.

Dan Bomotti, UNLV vice president of finance, told Regent Steve Sisolak on Thursday that university auditors had already begun an examination.

Sisolak said auditors for the Board of Regents, which approved the institute's creation three years ago, plan to begin their own review in about a week.

And Dan Van Epp, chairman of the UNLV Research Foundation, a nonprofit university-affiliated organization that houses the institute, said he expects to win approval from his board next week to conduct separate "financial" and "performance" audits of the institute.

"We need to look at it and do the right thing, which is what we're going to do" Van Epp said.

Sisolak said the allegations surrounding the institute strike at the heart of UNLV's credibility in the academic world.

"They were entrusted with federal taxpayer dollars to invest into research activities," he said. "If that didn't happen, it's a breakdown of the system, and we need to get to the bottom of it.

"There will be no cover-up here. We're going to step up to the plate, admit what happened, disclose everything and correct what needs to be corrected."

Tom Williams, a UNLV associate vice president and interim director of the institute, said he had no knowledge of the Energy Department inquiry.

But he added: "They certainly have the right to come in here anytime they want."

Williams said internal UNLV auditors showed up at the institute this week to begin preliminary work on their examination.

"We'll certainly cooperate with everybody who wants to take a look at our books and understand how we work," he said.

Records on file with the Energy Department show that the institute has not explained to federal officials, as required, why it failed to carry out several of its promised objectives.

According to the department's federal assistance reporting instructions, recipients of Energy Department grants are required to issue progress reports that include "any changes in approach or aims and reasons for change."

But records show the institute has not explained, for example, why it dropped plans to create an Office of Microbial Defense to study biological organisms that have the potential to be used as weapons of mass destruction.

The institute also offered no explanation for why it never created, as initially pledged, an Office of Information Technology to study cyber-security issues or an Office of Human Considerations to examine the human components of terrorism.

And in none of its papers on file with the Energy Department does the institute explain why its executive master's program in crisis and emergency management was put on hold after offering only one pilot class that graduated 15 students, with two more holdovers scheduled to graduate.

In an e-mail Friday to the regents and top university system officials, Williams acknowledged that the institute has not lived up to some of its promises.

"Although it could be fairly asserted that the progress of the Institute for Security Studies has not been as rapid as was expected," Williams wrote, "it has not been for lack of trying - or for lack of earnest effort on the part of ISS leadership or its employees.

"Before hasty conclusions are drawn, we ask that the facts and opinions presented recently be given closer review."

Williams said the institute has accomplished many goals and continues to pursue its original mission.

"Perhaps the more realistic depiction is that the institute has grown as quickly as it could, taking on projects as it grew," he said.

"There is still interest in the research areas of psychological and social ramifications of terrorism and issues involving terrorism and the Internet, but expertise must be developed within the institute and at the university."

Williams conceded that the microbial lab effort has failed so far, but he pointed out that the institute has not spent any federal money on it.

He concluded his e-mail by saying: "The institute has been more than willing to open its doors and accounts for review to ensure that it maintains the trust of the university and the community."