Alligator Online

UF got back its own report card with a list of 25 suggestions to improve the university's operations.

An audit performed by Florida's auditor general formally submitted in August analyzed how UF conducted business in 2004 and the first three months of 2005.

Each finding came with a recommendation by the auditor general. Corrective measures began before auditors finished their assessment, said Ed Poppell, UF's vice president of finance and administration.

While some issues are easy to fix, others will take years.

"At some point, we'll have a complete business documentation," Poppell said. "But it's always changing."

Finding No. 24 in the audit stated that UF acted "clearly without statutory authority" when it charged certain international students $50 per semester to cover the cost of tracking them beginning Fall 2002.

Following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Department of Homeland Security started the tracking system, known as the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System.

UF's written response to the finding stated Florida Statutes and a 2003 Board of Governors resolution justified the fee.

Poppell said the 2004 audit stood out from previous ones, which are performed every two years, because it took place during a major business operations overhaul.

"We made the largest conversion of business processes in the university's history by installing an accounting system that we've never had," he said.

The system, called myUFL systems, is designed to perform UF's accounting, human resources, payroll and other business functions that once were performed by the state.

Not all employees were properly trained to use myUFL systems, and the system itself had several flaws, such as incorrect data retrieval and the ability of certain employees to initiate, approve and make payments to themselves, the audit stated.

Following findings of misplaced assets and late vendor payments, UF has vowed to take stronger inventory and use more vendor discounts.

"We look at audits as being a positive evaluation of how we do business," Poppell said.