Between July 2005 and July 2008, the official billed CSU for expensive hotel stays, travel around the world, meals that cost nearly $167 a head, phone and Internet service at home, and more than $43,000 for commuting between his home in Northern California and his job at the chancellor’s office in Long Beach, according to the audit.
The audit by Elaine Howle does not name the CSU official. It says he worked in the information technology services department and left the university in July 2008.
A spokeswoman for CSU said the subject of the audit is David J. Ernst, who earned an annual salary of $204,420 when he left Cal State. Ernst now works for the University of California as the chief information officer, drawing an annual salary of $238,000.
Howle called attention to Ernst’s frequent global travel, including trips to Amsterdam, Singapore, London and Melbourne, Australia.
“We found the official took trips that did not appear to have a clear or demonstrable benefit to the state or university. In addition, there was no need for the official to regularly attend nonuniversity events, particularly given the costs involved,” she wrote.
Even his domestic travels were unusually costly, the audit says. Ernst billed the university for a $672-a-night hotel stay to attend a two-day meeting at a resort in Pebble Beach. The airfare for that trip was $662, the audit says.
In another instance described in the audit, Ernst billed the university for four nights at a hotel in San Francisco – at $450 a night – when records show he only stayed there for three.
The university did not exercise enough oversight, Howle claims, and violated its own policies in approving the reimbursements.
“The official consistently failed to follow university policies in submitting requests for reimbursement. In addition, the official’s supervisor and the university failed to adequately review the official’s expense reimbursement claims and follow long-established policies and procedures designed to ensure accuracy and adequate control of expenses,” the audit says.
The CSU chancellor’s office agreed with most of the auditor’s findings and recommendations, the report says. The university agreed it should try to get Ernst to pay back some of the money and scrutinize its reimbursement procedures. But the university did not agree with the auditor that much of Ernst’s travel was unnecessary.
“The university asserted that many of the trips were necessary to maintain a relationship with a particular vendor in whose software the university had made a substantial investment,” the audit says. “Nonetheless, the university still failed to clearly identify how the official’s extensive travel provided it concrete and measurable benefits.”
The CSU faculty union blasted the administration for its lax oversight during a fiscal crisis. Because of state budget cuts, professors are taking furloughs, students are paying higher fees and courses are being cut.
“This improper use of public funds could not have come at a worse time for students and faculty at the CSU,” Lillian Taiz, president of the California Faculty Association, said in a statement. “The $152,441 wasted by this individual should have gone to pay for class sections. This behavior would be inappropriate even in better times, but under the current economic circumstances it is beyond reprehensible.”
Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), a frequent critic of university management, called on Ernst to pay CSU $152,441 for the expenses the auditor found were improperly billed. He also asked CSU Chancellor Charles Reed and UC President Mark Yudof to publicly report all payments made to executives.
“The public deserves to know the extent of this problem,” Yee said in a statement. “Considering the culture of secrecy and corruption within the UC and CSU administration, it is highly unlikely this is an isolated incident.”
The audit is at: bsa.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/I2007-1158.pdf
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