The Maryland State Auditor released a report this month alleging that the University of Maryland’s Global Campus embezzled tens of millions of dollars in IT project funds, in one case leading to the abandonment of a $25 million project.
In a letter accompanying his audit report, state Auditor Brian Tanen wrote that the University of Maryland’s Global Campus, which primarily offers online degree programs and non-credit courses, also failed to conduct a formal evaluation of several of its IT organizations, which had operated without oversight for at least six years.
The auditor alleged that “two of these companies continue to depend almost exclusively on UMGC as a customer and source of revenue” and often operate outside of competitive procurement processes.
“UMGC had essentially no oversight or control and failed to provide important information about its operations, including salaries paid to its employees, procurement practices, ethics policies and internal controls,” the report said. “…UMGC also did not adequately monitor the work performed by these companies to ensure that appropriate services were being provided.”
The auditor also alleged that the lack of governance led the university to abandon a $25.7 million student information system project and instead opt to pay a vendor $719,000 to modernize its existing student information system.
The auditor alleged that the university spent more than $184 million on IT services between Oct. 1, 2018, and Dec. 31, 2022, without engaging in a competitive procurement process or verifying that the correct amounts were paid. Ellen Herbst, the university’s senior vice chancellor for administration and finance, disagreed with that finding, citing a law that she said exempted the special IT organizations involved from competitive procurement.
Herbst also agreed with other recommendations, such as that the university should begin conducting regular evaluations to ensure proper use of funds.
The university has also provided timelines for the planned changes, some of which are expected to be completed this year and others next year. For example, the university said that by the end of the year, it will “ensure that major IT projects are regularly, appropriately and independently monitored and evaluated by UMGC’s Enterprise Project Management Office (EPMO) to ensure the proper and timely receipt of all required deliverables.”
