Search for Firm Delays Audit of Cal Poly Offices

Cal Poly Pomona is still looking for a firm to handle a comprehensive audit of two campus offices--more than three months after the California State University chancellor’s office recommended such a review--but intends to commission the study by Jan. 1, campus officials said.

The recommendation was made in a Sept. 1 review of the California Polytechnic English Language Institute, which is part of the continuing education office, and the university’s foundation, which runs campus services, such as the bookstores and cafeteria.

The review followed stories in The Times that the continuing education office had paid tens of thousands of dollars to hire Henry and Jennifer Whang, who socialized with campus President Bob H. Suzuki, to promote the university in Asia--with few tangible returns.

The Times also reported on extensive financial problems at the university’s nonprofit auxiliary, the Cal Poly Pomona Foundation, which hastily opened an off-campus bookstore in January that is now more than $166,000 in debt.

The audit has been delayed because the university received three unusable bids--two did not include the required information and the third was too high and left no options to match against, said Cal Poly spokesman Norm Schneider. The high bid was roughly $70,000, he said.

“We’re still committed to having a comprehensive audit,” Schneider said. “We are somewhat disappointed that we haven’t been able to complete the search for an audit as of yet but will do so with all due haste and have this resolved before the end of the year.”

It is not unusual for the bidding process to take three months or longer because of complex state requirements, said Steve MacCarthy, a chancellor’s office spokesman.

“From our end, it’s not anything where anyone here is concerned about it in the least,” MacCarthy said. “(Cal Poly) just wants to work on a way to get it done as quickly as possible.”

When bids are unsuccessful, the university can approach other firms without rebidding the project. Cal Poly administrators are working with the chancellor’s office to find an appropriate auditing firm, MacCarthy said. The final selection of an auditing firm will be made by the university with input from the chancellor’s office.

The university will pay for the audit, which will be reviewed by the chancellor’s office for possible actions and released to the public, MacCarthy said.

MacCarthy said he did not see a conflict in the university’s hiring of an auditor to review its own offices. Part of the auditing firm’s charge is to provide an objective perspective, he said.

“The idea is when you hire a firm, they’re going to come in and look at it in a very independent manner,” he said.

The chancellor’s office report on Sept. 1 had exonerated President Suzuki of wrongdoing in the hiring of his friends but found numerous policy violations related to the $239,569 in salary and benefits paid over 17 months to the Whangs.

The Whangs raised only $20,000 and recruited 15 students for the English-as-a-second-language program, according to officials and Henry Whang. Both the continuing education office and the university’s foundation had paid the Whang’s salaries and expenses, which included 12 trips to Asia in 1991 and 1992.