UCLA Raises Africa Task Force Debt by $6,500

UCLA officials said Tuesday that the debt left by a scandal-wracked Africa trade task force and its executive director, Juanita St. John, is nearly $6,500 larger than previously reported.

The university released an audit showing the Task Force for Africa/Los Angeles Relations, a UCLA-based, city-funded project backed by Mayor Tom Bradley, owes the campus $46,478 and the bill is growing because of lost interest. Earlier, UCLA officials said it was owed $40,000.

The new UCLA audit said the task force was given office space there at the request of the mayor, but “defaulted . . . since its inception” on an 1985 financing agreement signed by Bradley. The university “repeatedly advised” St. John of overdrawn accounts, the audit said. But the task force’s account was “continuously in deficit” and required UCLA “to consistently advance funds to meet daily operating expenses of the task force.”

The task force and St. John, a business associate of Bradley, are under criminal investigation for possible misuse of public funds. An earlier city audit found the task force owed the city more than $260,000. St. John, who has a history of personal financial problems, including two bankruptcy filings, failed to account for $180,000 in personal withdrawals from task force accounts, city auditors said.