Warren Smith, chairman of the Foreign Languages and Literatures department, said the manipulation of time sheets by two employees is to blame for the department being more than $16,000 in debt.
Smith said the two staff members, Wilma Williams and John Owen, allegedly began falsifying time sheets for personal gain around December 2001, six months before he became department chairman.
Smith said the alleged fraud by the employees is the only reason for the deficit, which turned the department's yearly operating budget of $934,268.11 into a deficit of $16,110.01.
"There is a similarity between the amount of money taken and the deficit, so there is no reason to believe that there were any other contributing factors," Smith said.
The deficit triggered an investigation of the department by the University's Internal Audit department, which is still ongoing, said Reed Dassenbrock, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
Owen has since resigned for reasons unrelated to the investigation, and Williams has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the conclusion of the audit.
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Smith said the alleged fraud was allowed to happen because of payroll procedures that allowed time sheets to leave the department without the chairman's approval.
"The system in place didn't have me signing off on all of the department's paychecks, but that still doesn't explain why the errors weren't caught at a higher level," Smith said.
Smith said he has since changed the procedure and is personally responsible for approving all purchases and payroll for the department's many programs, which before had a level of autonomy.
Smith said he and his staff are working hard to correct the problems in the department and are looking forward to putting the ordeal behind them.
"We are pinching our pennies to pull ourselves out of the deficit," Smith said. "I don't harbor any hard feelings for the employees who have done this, and I'm looking forward to running a tight ship very soon."
