Investigators now have a better idea of how much money a former NKU Athletic Director allegedly stole.
Scott Eaton was fired in March for having inappropriate relationships with four university employees and a student. The university suspected he diverted school funds for personal reasons and had an accounting firm investigate.
Clark Schaefer Hackett says Eaton used NKU's procurement card to buy Kroger gift cards for personal use. That totaled $262,106 over six years. Other alleged fraudulent purchases totaled another $49,109.
NKU says it will petition the court to order full restitution including the $145,000 it cost to do the investigation.
The accounting firm recommended certain steps NKU can take so this doesn't happen again.
(ethical obligation)
- Change the code of conduct
- Emphasize the code of conduct during orientation
- Regular training for all current faculty and staff
- All employees should be required to acknowledge in writing they understand the code of conduct
- Ethics and integrity should be part of the performance review
- Move the Division of Financial and Operational Auditing to VP of Legal Affairs
- Move the Office of the Comptroller to report to the VP for Planning, Policy, and Budget
(to detect fraud)
- Reduce the number of faculty who have procurement cards
- Review and revise current policy of the cards
- Conduct periodic training for procurement cardholders
- Enforce the requirement that faculty and staff provide documentation
- Separate responsibilities of the procurement card user from the employee responsible for reconciling that user's purchases
- Conduct critical analysis of procurement car activity
