In audit report, state reveals ‘excessive’ UM System spending

The Maneater: Latest Stories The UM System spent more than $2 million on executive compensation over a period of two years, according to an audit of the system released Monday. Of these expenditures, portions “appear excessive,” lack transparency, were made without a clearly defined decision or approval process and possibly violate the Missouri Constitution.Nearly $1.2 million went to incentive payments to top system administrators, including over $100,000 to former UM System President Tim Wolfe. The rest of the $2 million was spent on additional payments and allowances for vehicles, housing, relocation and retention.
The audit, conducted by Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway, was released in a time of financial limbo for MU. The university is already facing millions of dollars in budget cuts on top of decreasing enrollment numbers.
Galloway rated the UM System as “fair,” the second-lowest of four ratings. Here’s a breakdown of the issues found in the system’s spending and how it can start to make improvements.
Incentive payments
Incentive bonuses nearing $1.2 million were approved by either the Board of Curators or the system president. And while these payments were made in accordance with the system’s rules and regulations, the process by which payment amounts were decided and doled out is unclear.
The audit found that the ambiguous process for earning, determining and approving incentive payments is informal and not “clearly defined,” which makes these payments seem like year-end bonuses that could violate the Missouri Constitution.
According to the audit, the irregularity in how much various administrators make in incentive payments “gives the appearance the incentive payments are primarily a means to provide additional compensation rather than an incentive for high performance.”
In addition, the audit found the criteria for earning these bonuses to be subjective. There is currently no formal way to measure executives’ performance, and as a result, many of the awarded incentives were given out for meeting standard ...


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