HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – The mystery of what happened to more than $1 million at Alabama A&M University hasn’t been solved two years after state examiners reported financial problems at the school.
“The money is gone. You can’t find it, you can’t fix it, you just write it off,” former A&M trustee Tommy Beason told The Huntsville Times.
Beason resigned in frustration in 2008 about the time the Alabama Examiners of Public Accounts reported $1.2 million missing. It was “receipted in the accounting records of the university that were not identified as being properly deposited,” the examiners reported.
The examiners eventually were able to locate $43,000 of the missing money, reducing the amount to $1.44 million, with most of it being money that students had paid.
The examiners reported in 2008 they were turning over the matter to state Attorney General Troy King for collection.
King’s spokeswoman, Joy Patterson, said the attorney general’s “review of the findings contained in this audit is active” and the office does not comment on matters under active review. She pointed out that a review is not necessarily an investigation.
Rod Steakley, attorney for the A&M board of trustees, said he knows of no investigation by the attorney general.
