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The Daily Breeze
March 14, 2007
AUDIT FINDS WIDESPREAD FRAUD, THEFT
State officials have recommend prosecution for irregularities at Compton Community College. El Camino College has stepped in to administer the troubled college.
In a scathing audit of Compton Community College, state investigators say they found numerous instances of potential financial fraud, phony student enrollments, missing computer equipment and the campus auto shop being used for private gain.
The "extraordinary audit" ordered by the state Legislature expands previous probes that led to the college being taken over by the state in May 2004 and to the school's loss of academic accreditation last year, the Los Angeles Times reported. El Camino College near Torrance took over administration of the college last fall.
State auditors and the investigative firm Kessler International recommended that authorities consider possible prosecutions for irregularities found during the 2003-05 period examined in the study. The FBI and Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office are looking at the report, officials told the Times.
Former college trustee Ignacio Pena pleaded guilty in 2005 to siphoning more than $1 million in public funds via a dummy organization that enrolled people in sham courses.
California Community Colleges Chancellor Marshall "Mark" Drummond estimated that upward of $5 million was stolen from the college during those years, but there is no way to really know since many documents were destroyed.
He said that the audit was retroactive and that most of the problems it described have been cleaned up.
Without naming names, the audit by the state's Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team found "significant flaws" in many of the college's past operations and "many instances of questionable and perceived fraudulent practices," the Times reported.
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