Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
Wright State University paid tens of thousands of dollars to a former consultant when it shouldn’t have, a report released today from the Ohio Auditor’s office states.
Ron Wine Consulting Group, LLC was paid $73,750 by the university from April 2013 to July 2013 for invoices associated with a purchase order, according to the audit. The auditor’s office has issued a “finding for recovery,” meaning the money was illegally spent, according to state law.
The finding was issued because the audit found that WSU did not enter into an agreement with the consulting group that would have defined the scope of services it was to perform. Invoices submitted by the consulting group did not provide documentation with details of the work performed, according to the report.
The audit report also found former provost Sundaram Narayanan and Ryan Fendley, former director of strategic initiatives for WSU, to be jointly liable for the $73,750.
Narayanan was fired in June 2018 by the WSU board of trustees after being on paid leave in a faculty position for more than three years. Narayanan and Fendley were two of four administrators placed on paid leave in May 2015 when a federal investigation was launched into violations of immigration laws at WSU, which the university settled for $1 million in November.
WSU spokesman Seth Bauguess declined to comment on the audit’s finding due to pending litigation with Wine’s consulting firm.
As Wright State’s consultant, Ron Wine said he brought in at least $134.7 million — $69.5 million in federal funding and $65.2 million in state funding — but was only paid $2.2 million of the $6.7 million he was owed when his work was terminated in 2016.
