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 More probing Univ. of Minnesota auditors investigate coaches' trip
Posted: Wednesday April 28, 1999 10:10 AM
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- A $9,100 "business" trip to Las Vegas by Minnesota basketball coach Clem Haskins, three assistant coaches and their spouses is being questioned in an auditing review. The trip was ostensibly for a coaches' seminar, but a university auditor found no evidence that any such event took place, according to memos written earlier this year to top university officials, including President Mark Yudof. The coaches later told an auditor the trip was a postseason "debriefing" but presented no documentation to support the claim, according to Gail Klatt, associate vice president in the university's department of auditing. Auditors concluded it wasn't a legitimate business expense under university rules. A booster group paid for the trip, and coaches were able to avoid income taxes on the gift by declaring that the travel was business-related, Klatt said. The Internal Revenue Service and the university consider business travel a legitimate expense. In the past, the trips have been approved by McKinley Boston, vice president for student development and athletics, and then-university President Nils Hasselmo, according to the audit review. But the coaches could be taxed for the benefit, or the university could seek reimbursement because such expenditures for spousal travel aren't allowable under university policy, the review said. Details of the audit were reported Wednesday by both the Saint Paul Pioneer Press and the Star Tribune of Minneapolis, who obtained the information through freedom-of-information requests. The university already is investigating allegations from a former office manager who said she wrote or helped write more than 400 papers for players on the basketball team. The 1997 trip also included an improper charge for a clothing purchase that totaled nearly $300 and could have charged to the university twice -- once by submitting an individual receipt and later when the same charge was included in the hotel bill that was repaid. Auditors also questioned whether $562 charged to the university for a golf event during the trip was proper. Other findings from the review made public Tuesday reveal that auditors found that men's athletic department officials kept no record of checks written on a bank account and didn't balance the bank statement for three years. The audit review also shows that basketball and hockey coaches and players routinely received more meal money than the university allowed, and that, despite rules forbidding the practice, coaches mentioned their university affiliation on at least four occasions in promotional brochures touting private camps. The coaches are not identified in her memo, but Klatt identified one as Haskins. Haskins' attorney, Ron Zamanksy, had no comment on the trip or the audit findings. Yudof's office referred all questions to his chief of staff, Tonya Moten Brown, who said the university president is aware of the problem and plans to address it.
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