State says $10 convenience fee is prohibited

UCF is wrong to charge a mandatory $10 "convenience fee" when students pay for their classes online, and administrators who spent $5,321 on parties for faculty and staff last year erred when they took that money out of an account intended to promote higher education.

Those are among nine violations found during an annual audit of the university released last month and conducted by the Florida Auditor General, which also uncovered occasional sloppiness in payroll accounting and faulted UCF for its sluggishness in charging those who rent the UCF Arena for private use.

Campus administrators declined to discuss the results of the audit with the Future. Instead, they pointed to their formal responses in the document. William Merck, vice president of administration and finance, did not respond to requests for comment.

In that report, UCF defends its practice of charging the $10 "convenience fee", the non-refundable sum that is familiar to any student who has paid for his or her tuition online. Between January 2002 and March 2003, that fee generated about $338,000 for the university. Campus administrators told auditors the "fee is a fee charged to provide remote locations for students to use as a convenience for paying fees," the audit states.

However, auditors researched UCF service agreements with the bank that holds university accounts, and concluded that the agreement prohibits UCF from charging such a fee. The Florida Auditor General's office requires that UCF explain how it will correct these errors or why they're not a violation.

Currently, the university plans to modify policy to help allow any event whose nature is a "reception" to be approved by a line officer, such as the president, a vice president or dean in order to have concession funds be allocated for it.

The audit also took exception to spending on certain events for faculty and staff, including President Hitt's holiday party for employees.

The criticism arose because more than $5,000 spent to cater those events was redirected from campus concession funds. Those funds, which are generated from vending machines located across campus, are supposed to be used to promote higher education, sponsor guest lectures and help solicit prospective donors. Indeed, last year UCF correctly spent about $328,000 from campus concession funds for the intended purpose, the audit states.

Yet $5,321 from that account was spent on the departmental parties that, according to the auditors, "did not appear to serve the interests of higher education."

Specifically, the audit cited $2,380 spent by the Office of Constituent Relations for food and drinks at the president's holiday party; $1,591 spent by the College of Arts and Sciences for the dean's holiday reception for staff and administrators; $829 spent by the College of Business Administration to cater a welcome-back party for faculty and staff; and $521 spent by that same college to cater an employee's farewell party.

UCF blamed the expenses on an ambiguity in the written policy that dictates how concession monies may be spent. In particular, the university based its actions on the following: the events were held on campus, the dress was not "holiday attire"

The audit also found that errors existed in the university's online payroll system, maintained by the Human Resources Department. Each pay period, the payroll system requires processing by two employees at each department. When an employee's payroll status changes, the responsible department must submit a personal action form (PAF) authorizing the status change to Human Resources. During the audit, it was found that the university identified and cancelled 76 payroll warrants totaling about $45,950 that were generated in error. Most of these were cancelled in time and not paid out. However, there were 17 instances that these were not cancelled for over 30 days.

The school overpaid a Criminal Justice and Legal Students professor by $4,000 over eight pay periods. The professor ultimately repaid for the overpayment more than six months later. It was also found that an employee hired by the Psychology Dept. was on payroll but never showed up to work. The Department continued to pay the employee for six pay periods, worth $2,891.

The audit also shows that the UCF Arena failed to bill users for three events until 7 to 11 weeks after the events were held. The Arena offers space for rental on such instances as graduations, meetings, lectures, fundraisers, trade shows and concerts. Auditors warn that the inability to bill users in the 30 days required by university procedures leads to cash flow problems for operation and an increased risk that these payments may never be received.