Former UA Officials Testify About Deficit At Legislative Hearing

From Michael Hibblen with our content partner, KUAR-FM 89 News:

As Arkansas lawmakers probe a $4.19 million deficit at the Fayetteville campus of the University of Arkansas, current and former officials testified Tuesday at the Capitol, offering contradictory accounts about who was at fault.

Former employees who were not allowed to testify at a hearing last month, got to give their side of the story to members of the Joint Performance Review Committee.

Brad Choate, who ran the University of Arkansas’s fundraising division, suggested there’s a “culture of cover up” by school officials.

“Frankly, this is another example of a pattern of shameful behaviors designed to protect themselves rather than be honest and accountable. Ladies and gentlemen, something is rotten in Fayetteville.”

He testified that he was not to blame for overspending in the department, leading to the deficit.

“We worked with numbers we were given and did not exceed that budget. As it turns out, and the budget has shown, we were given bad numbers as a result of poor financial staffing at the top of the organization and the university’s own highly questionable accounting practices,” Choate said.

“Folks I didn’t wake up stupid or lazy one day after 32 years. We built a top notch program for the University of Arkansas that produced outstanding results. Unfortunately the financial affairs staff and procedures we relied upon let us all down.”

Choate called himself the fall guy for problems that he said had been building since Fayetteville Chancellor David Gearhart ran the Advancement department.

“When Jean (Schook, Associate Vice Chancellor for Finacial Affairs) told me there was no way Dave (Gearhart) nor I could have known the true condition of the division’s finances I thought Dave would be happy because it showed he and I both were misled. But instead, Dave panicked when his own financial people told him the problem began when he was the division’s vice-chancellor.”

Gearhart disputed that.

“The simple truth is that Mr. Choate failed to carry out his duties and responsibilities as vice-chancellor by ignoring his duty to manage and supervise budgetary matters,” Gearhart said.

Fired UA officials suggested Gearhart might have perjured himself when he testified that he did not order the destruction of requested documents.

Gearhart noted that investigators in Washington County decided not to file charges.

“They also determined that absolutely no theft, no fraud or no misappropriation of funds occurred. The prosecuting attorney also found no wrongdoing with regard to the issues referred by Legislative Audit, nor did they substantiate any of Mr. Diamond’s claims,” Gearhart said.

The legislative hearing did little to satisfy lawmakers.

Read the comments from legislators who steered the committee or listen to Hibblen’s full report at this link.