U. of California President’s Office Faces New Scrutiny After Scathing Audit

The fallout continues for Janet Napolitano, president of the 10-campus University of California system, following a scathing state-audit report that accused her office of hiding tens of millions of dollars in secret reserve funds and of tampering with what were supposed to be confidential responses from the campuses in a survey the auditor sent to them.

According to The Mercury News, the university’s Board of Regents agreed during a special meeting on Thursday to hire an independent consultant to examine whether Ms. Napolitano’s office had reviewed the campuses’ survey responses and in some cases asked campus officials to change them.

Also on Thursday the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Gov. Jerry Brown had expressed disappointment in Ms. Napolitano’s office as he released a revised budget plan, in which he withheld $50 million from the university until it made progress in fixing the financial problems identified in the audit.

Asked at a news conference whether he still had confidence in Ms. Napolitano’s leadership, Governor Brown replied that “most people think she’s doing a good job.” He added, though, that he thought some salaries in the president’s office — which has nearly 1,700 employees and oversees a budget of $686 million — were “way too high.” He said he had put the $50-million set-aside in his new budget plan “to hold their feet to the fire” when it comes to trimming costs.

Ms. Napolitano has defended her office’s operations and has disagreed with some of the audit’s findings, especially the allegation of hidden reserve funds. “The notion that we have an undisclosed pot of money — that was inaccurate,” she told The Chronicle of Higher Education in an interview this week.