More than 90 foundations and private enterprises operate on California State University campuses, but it’s unclear how much of the $1.2 billion under their control should be subject to public scrutiny, an internal audit concludes.
The audit panel, consisting of four campus presidents, five finance officers, a vice president and a student, said that accounting procedures are so unclear that public and private money is commingled. What’s more, the law should be changed to bring portions of the operations under the California Public Records Act.
The lack of transparency made headlines last year when the CSU Stanislaus Foundation refused to disclose how much it was paying Sarah Palin for a speaking engagement. A judge ruled the information must be made public.
CSU’s internal audit did not satisfy critics, including state Sen. Leland Yee, a San Francisco Democrat who argues that proposed remedies do not go far enough.
Read the full story here and the report here (attachment A).