SAN FRANCISCO — The University of California Board of Regents vowed to implement audit recommendations to improve the budgeting practices of the president’s office following a stinging state audit, but took pains to praise President Janet Napolitano and even question the report’s findings.
State Auditor Elaine Howle briefed the UC Board of Regents Thursday on findings that administrators failed to disclose $175 million it had saved by spending less than budgeted and requesting increases based on previous years’ overestimated budgets. The board oversees the 10-campus University of California, considered among the most prestigious in the country.
Howle said she meant no disrespect to Napolitano, a former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, but her job was to survey budgeting process and practices.
“And the Office of the President is not doing a good job,” she said.
Napolitano disputed findings that her office hid $175 million and said much of the money is committed to system-wide university programs, leaving a much smaller amount — about $38 million — in reserve for unexpected expenses.
Still, she and the board have committed to implementing the audit’s 33 recommendations to improve transparency and spell out policy.
The audit drew bipartisan legislative ire and prompted California Gov. Jerry Brown to withhold $50 million from the UC system’s budget to “hold their feet to the fire.”
