An employee of the Burris Laboratory School is responsible for more than $65,000 missing from the school, according to an audit report from the Indiana State Board of Accounts.
Burris is a K-12 school on Ball State University's campus and a department of Teacher's College.
According to the audit, Nancy Jones, former financial coordinator for Burris, failed to properly record and deposit $65,488.68. The audit also states she accepted a television set from a vendor in exchange for making purchases of ink from that vendor. Burris returned the ink, but had to pay a $109.45 return shipping fee for the television. Jones also made a personal purchase of $17 using Burris money, according to the audit.
The audit reported that Jones was asked to reimburse the school $65,615.13 for these costs.
The University Police Department launched an investigation at the request of the director of University Human Resources. It began on Sept. 16 the day after Jones' employment ended.
The issue was discovered when a company called in late August to ask for payment for an ink purchase. Jones was not there and the company spoke to another employee. The ink cartridges were of low quality and Burris sent them back. The company asked that a television it had sent to Jones also be returned. The school was not aware that Jones had gotten the television, according to the audit.
University Police, the Indiana State Police and the Indiana State Board of Accounts worked together on the investigation, Tony Proudfoot, associate vice president for marketing and communications, said. The case has been referred to a prosecutor, he said.
The audit was filed by the State Board of Accounts on April 17 and covered July 1, 2002 to Sept. 15, 2008.
Burris did not follow the Ball State Cash Handling Policy, according to the audit. Burris principal Jay McGee submitted a letter to Board of Accounts detailing changes Burris made to bring itself in line with Ball State procedures.
"We now have confidence that this kind of incident could not happen in the future," Proudfoot said.
The report said the university has an insurance policy to cover losses incurred by employee dishonesty.
For more on this story, read Thursday's issue of The Ball State Daily News.
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