W.Va. college rapped for spending in audit

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia University-Parkersburg avoided competitive bidding to buy $1.2 million worth of computers and related gear, and also devoted at least $34,000 in taxpayer funds to train out-of-state workers, a legislative audit released Tuesday said.

Officials at the public college defended the purchases and said an employer based in West Virginia at the time covered the travel-related costs of training its workers in California, Illinois and Oklahoma.

"We as an institution effectively, efficiently and in accordance with the law spend taxpayer money wisely," Sam Nagraj, the university's chief procurement officer, told members of the two House-Senate committees that received the report.

Auditors said the university paid the Florida-based Business Technology Center over the course of 178 transactions between July 2008 and March that each fell below $25,000. State rules require most agencies to seek competitive bids for contracts worth at least that amount or more.

Legislative Auditor Aaron Allred said the state Purchasing Division watches for such buying patterns that suggest attempts to avoid the bidding rule. But that agency doesn't oversee the state's higher education institutions, Allred noted. The audit cites rules for those schools that deem competitive bidding a best practice, and that encourage them to rely on existing state contracts.

Jill Mooney, the analyst who presented Tuesday's report, said the university could have saved $80,000 through an ongoing state computer contract. She also said that the St. Petersburg, Fla., vendor was not registered with the state.

The report said the university's chief information officer chose the vendor, having done business with the company since 1993 and while working for a college in St. Petersburg, his hometown. School officials appeared to concede to auditors during the review that they were aware of the $25,000 threshold for bidding, the report said.

Having begun his job in October, Nagraj said the university did not intentionally sidestep competitive bidding but was instead spending money as it became available. In their written response to the audit, school officials also said that they check with multiple vendors to seek competitive prices for purchases.

The workforce funding trained employees of Simonton Windows, founded in West Virginia in 1946. It had its headquarters in Wood County when it sought the training aid, both for its in-state workers and those at the three out-of-state locations, but had also become a subsidiary of Fortune Brands in 2006. The university provided the training in 2009. Simonton's headquarters relocated to neighboring Ohio this year.

University Vice President Mary Beth Busch said Simonton paid for the travel costs after plans to bring the 32 out-of-state workers to West Virginia or enlist their local community colleges fell through. Mooney cited primary goal of the workforce training grants provided by the state's Council for Community and Technical College Education.

"There has to be some limitation to the training community colleges provide," Mooney told lawmakers. "The West Virginia economy and its workers should directly benefit from the use of West Virginia workforce development dollars."

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