The University of the Virgin Islands lost $2.2 million in federal grant reimbursements due to lack of personnel training, improper supervision and monitoring, failure to follow up on reimbursement requests and failure to provide local matching funds.
According to a federal Interior Department audit released Friday, UVI lost $1.2 million in U.S. Department of Agriculture funds, $550,000 in Health and Human Services Department grant money and $490,000 in Interior funds because it failed to file required documentation in a proper and timely manner.
The audit covered fiscal years 1998 and 1999.
The $2.2 million that should have been reimbursed by the federal agencies had to be absorbed by the university's operating accounts.
The Legislature gave UVI a $25 million budget appropriation in 1999 to cover mostly salaries and operating costs. As of March 1999, the university had 76 ongoing projects funded by federal grants amounting to $10.9 million.
In one instance, Interior terminated a $156,500 grant and UVI subsequently spent $129,596 of its own budget because financial status reports and requests for reimbursements were not submitted to the Office of Management and Budget on time and the local matching portion of the grant was never appropriated or paid.
In response to the audit findings, Malcolm Kirwan, UVI vice president for administration and finance, said the university had made several attempts to collect the grant funds awarded through the V.I. government, without success.
"Since then the university has adopted a policy of not continuing any federal program administered through the Virgin Islands government for which reimbursements are in arrears for more than one quarter," he said.
In another instance, the university ended up paying $16,000 in interest on a $1.6 million payout that was in excess of what was required and sat in a UVI bank account for five months. By law, grantees must pay interest if "federal funds are in a state fund prior to the day the state pays out funds for program purposes."
Kirwan defended the university's record with regard to its timeliness in filing reports. "Although there are cases in which reporting deadlines are missed," he said, "the university has a good record of meeting more than 90 percent of the deadlines for the filing of financial status reports on grants."
Of 11 recommendations made by Interior in the audit report, nine were considered resolved and implemented. Additional information was requested in the other two cases.
