UCI Auditor Examines Charges of Impropriety

The internal auditor for UC Irvine is investigating allegations of possible financial improprieties involving mid-level managers in the maintenance department of the university’s financially troubled medical center in Orange, officials said.

The investigation apparently was prompted by unspecified charges made in recent weeks by two senior employees of UCI Medical Center’s facilities management department, one of whom recently left the center, medical center sources said.

Andrew Yeilding, director of internal auditing for the UC Irvine campus, said his office has done “minimal work” so far but plans in coming weeks to step up its investigation into allegations of improprieties within what he described as mid-level management at the facilities department. He declined to name the individuals implicated in the allegations.

He and other center officials refused to discuss any details of the case, citing its active status. “We don’t know how good” the information is yet, Yeilding said.

However, UCI Medical Center spokesman Kenneth Ross said he believed that investigators had examined the allegations of financial impropriety, found “no substance” to them, and closed the case. Officials with the facilities management department declined to comment.

Yeilding said that the allegations center on what appear to be an isolated problem rather than on any systemic financial abuse within that department of the medical center that handles maintenance and minor construction. As for the amount of money that may be involved, he said, “My guess is it wouldn’t even be in the tens of thousands.”

The investigation comes at a time of increasing operating losses for the hospital, which reported a loss of more than $11 million for its last fiscal year.

Administrators blame what they say is an overwhelming number of uninsured or impoverished patients whose care must be covered in part by the center’s own funds.

One employee in the division said to be a source of some of the allegations refused to discuss the case. The former employee identified as the other source of the allegations could not be reached for comment.