The Tribune

DAYS after The College of the Bahamas revealed an employee was placed on leave without pay over fraud allegations, the institution said “great efforts are being made to improve” its financial administration.

The announcement also comes after The Tribune revealed in September that poor auditing practices at COB had prevented the institution from using the funds from a $16.1m Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) loan intended to help upgrade the institution as it seeks to transition to university status.

A statement released by COB yesterday said the college would complete the required financial audits to begin drawdowns from the CDB loan in January 2016.

“Initial drawdowns will prioritise all aspects of institutional strengthening,” COB said.

The college was at least four years behind in audits when the Christie administration moved to borrow the funds for its development from the CDB in October 2014, The Tribune reported earlier.

Last month, The Tribune reported on an audit of COB completed this year by Baker Tilly & Gomez (BTG) for the period ending June 30, 2011 that provided insight on areas of weak internal controls at the institution.

The 36-page document obtained by The Tribune lists a litany of faults found in COB’s internal control processes and procedures, ranging from failures to conduct timely bank reconciliation procedures to failure to adequately train staff.

One practice by the college, the report noted, could have even resulted in theft.

In its statement on Monday, COB also said that the institution has a chief internal auditor and “frequent internal audits are being done across the institution.”

COB said it has also hired a financial administrative consultant - Dr Paul Bylaska - through the Registry for College and University Presidents, based in Peabody, Massachusetts.

Dr Bylaska, most recently served as vice-president of finance and administration at Clarion University of Pennsylvania.

He was responsible for the budget, accounts receivable and payable, human resources and payroll, purchasing (including procurement and disbursement), and general ledger maintenance and reconciliation.

“At COB, Dr Bylaska will serve as the in-house consultant in the Business Office and will assist with the organisational restructuring, implementation of standard procedures for all areas, staff training and development, as well as the implementation of a new Data Management System,” COB said. COB also said it is in the process of updating all administrative technology and will be implementing the most globally-used university data management system, Elucian’s Banner System, in 2016.

“This will greatly increase accountability and take record-keeping and data management throughout the institution to higher levels,” the school said. “The college will continue to keep the public informed of actions being taken to improve all administrative systems across all areas, including academic administration, student development, capital and infrastructure development.”

On Monday, The Tribune reported that police received a complaint that an employee of COB allegedly defrauded the institution of thousands of dollars.

Though the institution did not go into explicit details about the matter in a statement issued on Friday because it was “limited with respect to its ability to disclose further information,” the college did confirm that police were brought in to conduct the investigation.

COB added that once it received details of the alleged “violation,” officials suspended the individual in question without pay pending the outcome of the police probe.

Well-placed sources told The Tribune that an employee is suspected of altering records at the college to allegedly defraud the school out of more than $25,000.