MALONE CALLS FOR HEARING TO EXAMINE SPENDING BY RUTGERS ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT

SAYS BUDGET AND HIGHER EDUCATION COMMITTEES NEED TO INVESTIGATE SPENDING ISSUES 

Assembly Republican Budget Officer Joseph Malone today called for a joint hearing of the Assembly Budget and Assembly Higher Education committees to examine recent reports of questionable spending practices by the Rutgers University athletic department.

“For years Rutgers officials have come before the budget committee and complained about being short-changed in the state budget process,” said Malone, R-Burlington, Ocean, Monmouth and Mercer. “Now we learn that the university is not even keeping track of money that was coming into the school.”

The Star-Ledger today reported on a confidential internal audit that was issued in February criticizing the Rutgers athletic department’s fiscal controls – including hundreds of thousands of dollars in off-the-books spending that never appeared in the Rutgers budget.

The audit challenged the accuracy of some of those expenses and claimed that there were gaps in the athletic department’s oversight and documentation of how those monies were being spent. Rutgers athletic director Robert E. Mulcahy would not comment on the report but disagreed with the findings.

Malone noted that just last year Rutgers cut out six sports at the school, including heavyweight crew, lightweight crew, men’s and women’s fencing, swimming, diving, and tennis. Officials told legislators the sports were being cut due to a lack of adequate funding.

“This latest story indicates the testimony that these sports were being cut for lack of funding was either based on inaccurate information, or was intentionally misleading,” Malone said.

“Mr. Mulcahy should be brought before these legislative committees and he should explain how much money was being handled off the books, where that money was being spent, and why that money was not being incorporated in the school’s budget,” Malone said. “Students at Rutgers who have been paying higher tuition costs, and state taxpayers who have been funding the university, deserve to have these questions answered immediately.”

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