|
UCA probes 2, including travel outlays
CONWAY — The University of Central Arkansas’ Office of Internal Audit is reviewing matters relating to former Chief of Staff Jack Gillean and an employee who reported directly to him and received a $20,000 pay raise last year.
While documentation indicates at least some of employee Adam Henderson’s travel expenses are being audited, details of what Internal Audit is reviewing about Gillean were unclear.
Gillean, a UCA administrator who made $146,971 a year, abruptly resigned June 15 after someone used two of his UCA-issued master keys to enter the school’s financial-aid office and steal four prescription pills from an employee’s desk.
Of the 32 UCA employees who had grand master keys in May, Henderson and Gillean were the only two who no longer had them as of June 22, records show.
Henderson now reports to the physical plant, “and it was determined that he did not need a master key,” UCA spokesman Jeff Pitchford said in an e-mail. Because several plant employees have such keys, “[accessibility] will not be an issue,” he added.
UCA police spokesman Arch Jones has said no one has been arrested in that pill theft, although police used security cameras and tapes to identify and question the suspect, who had both of Gillean’s keys.
Asked Thursday whether the suspect has been granted immunity, Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland declined comment. He also declined to say whether federal investigators are looking at the case. Jones has said the investigation is ongoing.
Pitchford indicated in an e-mail Thursday that Internal Audit documents relating to Gillean exist, but Pitchford declined to release them.
“Documentation Internal Audit currently [possesses] concerning Jack Gillean and Adam Henderson are considered employee evaluation and job performance records and therefore are exempt from” the Freedom of Information Act, Pitchford wrote.
UCA cut Henderson’s salary as of Sunday from $57,000 to $37,332 annually, wiping out almost the entire $20,000 raise Gillean had approved for him in August 2011, records obtained under that same law show.
Henderson also was demoted from director to coordinator of the Office of Environmental Health and Safety.
Neither Gillean, 55, nor Henderson, 32, has returned phone calls or e-mails seeking comment.
Henderson incurred $9,700.83 in travel expenses during the fiscal year that ended June 30, expense and reimbursement forms released to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on June 20 show. Almost all the trips were to Arlington, Texas.
“Mr. Gillean was Mr. Henderson’s direct supervisor and would have approved the travel expenditures,” Pitchford said in an earlier e-mail. “The travel forms indicate training for environmental issues.”
UCA Controller Mary Kay Dunaway confirmed the $9,700.83 figure in an e-mail Pitchford forwarded.
The travel took place as UCA has cut back on such expenditures because of financial considerations.
The Internal Audit document UCA released earlier this week and the expense documents previously released are not identical even in dates of travel for the past fiscal year.
The Internal Audit document is a compilation of information on nine trips. Some destinations are not specified, and two trips date back to 2010. The expense forms reflect 10 trips, almost all to Arlington, Texas, and all in the past fiscal year.
In a statement Monday, UCA President Tom Courtway said that several months ago Gillean had “reported his grand master key ‘lost’ and stated that he could not locate it.”
Jones has said the grand master key allows access to almost all nonresidential buildings on campus and that the second key the suspect had, called simply a master key,allows access into nonresidential buildings the grand master key does not open.
On Thursday, Courtway said his recollection was that Gillean reported he had lost his grand master key late last fall.
He said he was asked to go to Gillean’s office and they discussed the matter along with UCA’s police chief, the physical plant director, and perhaps others.
“When he reported it, I didn’t know if it was one or two keys,” Courtway said. “He just said he lost his grand master key.” Courtway said he wasn’t certain whether Gillean said he had lost both keys.
Jones has declined to comment on whether Gillean reported the second key missing.
UCA “Key and Lock Guidelines,” revised Feb. 24, lists the grand master key’s replacement value as $100,000.
Henderson joined UCA in May 2007 at a salary of $26,308. At first he reported to the physical plant. In July 2008, he began reporting instead to Gillean.
In January 2010, Gillean signed off on a $5,000 raise for Henderson, who also then was promoted from Environmental Health and Safety coordinator to director.
The explanation on the personnel-action form that gave Henderson the $20,000 raise last year says, “ Reorganization--will assume additional responsibilities.”
While Gillean’s signature was not the only one on those forms, his was the first in each case except for the original hiring form.
UCA spokesman Venita Jenkins said that, after talking with Graham Gillis, associate vice president of human resources, she had learned that Henderson’s duties had increased when one of the two environmental office employees resigned.
Jenkins said in an e-mail that Larry Lawrence, physical plant director, indicated Henderson’s job duties include “asbestos checks, indoor air quality, mold issues, fire alarm testing, fire extinguisher testing, etc.”
Henderson’s expense documents indicate that he often went to Arlington, Texas, to take courses or to attend conferences sponsored by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. That agency has a regional education center at the University of Texas at Arlington.
Among the courses the expense forms show he took were one titled Excavation, Trenching and Soil Mechanics and one titled Introduction to Environmental Compliance and Management. He also took a waste-management course in Baytown, Texas, the forms show.
Pitchford declined comment on why Henderson’s job position and salary changed recently.
During his time at UCA, Gillean served in various roles, including general counsel, vice president for administration and most recently chief of staff.
|
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
I wonder if any nonprofits are hiring... 
