State auditors investigating the University of Colorado’s football program are concerned about large cash advances for staff and courtesy-car agreements for coaches, according to a university document.
The audit of the football program, which is scheduled to be released Dec. 12, also is expected to scrutinize coach Gary Barnett’s football camps, according to the document university officials generated as a guide to state audits involving CU.
CU president Hank Brown and regents have said they want to see the audit before making any decision on a contract extension for Barnett. His contract expires in July 2007 and athletic director Mike Bohn is considering an extension.
State auditors were interested in copies of checks made to the camps, where 8- to 18-year-olds are instructed by CU coaches. They also were concerned about tax documents showing how much Barnett and other coaches earned by putting on the camps, and how Barnett spent money from his private company, High Hopes ’95.
The items were listed in a two-page document that included 19 concerns of the auditor’s office about the CU Foundation and the football program. The document was distributed to some university employees in September and was recently obtained by The Denver Post.
The state auditor’s office would not comment Wednesday on whether those concerns are part of the complete audit, which is secret until the Legislative Audit Committee votes to open it to the public, said Karon Hoover, an assistant to state auditor Joanne Hill.
More than half of the 19 concerns on the university’s list involved the CU Foundation and were included in a state audit released in November. That audit detailed 21 recommendations to reform the university’s relationship with its fundraising arm.
The audits were requested a year ago by then-CU president Betsy Hoffman.
CU may have resolved one of the state auditor’s concerns last summer. The university took over control of the camps, now called the University of Colorado Football Camps, from Barnett, who ran them as an independent contractor and called them Gary Barnett Football Techniques School.
The university document says state auditors were concerned about the prior relationship between CU and the football camps, which paid the university to use dorms for campers.
“University resources appear to be utilized in operating athletic camps on the Boulder campus, although the camps are expected, by contract, to operate as independent contractors,” it says.
Assistant athletic director Dave Plati said Barnett and other athletic department employees would not discuss the audit.
“If something has been leaked, we’re certainly not going to comment,” Plati said.
Plati said he received a 1099 tax form from Barnett’s camps each of the 10 years he worked there, which was one of the concerns listed on the university document about the audit.
Now that the camps are under the university’s umbrella, coaches are paid a bonus for working at them and CU handles all accounting, CU spokeswoman Michele McKinney said.
The document also says “football staff can take large advances without sufficient documentation.”
University employees can get cash advances for travel by filling out request forms, said CU controller Mary Catherine Gaisbauer. The athletic department often uses cash advances to pay for meals during team travel, she said.
State auditors also investigated the use of courtesy cars by CU coaches, the document says.
Auto dealerships often let a university coach drive one of their vehicles in exchange for athletic tickets, Gaisbauer said. The dealer leases the vehicle to the university for a year or more and the coach driving it has to keep track of miles used for university business, she said.
Barnett is among the coaches who drives a courtesy car, Gaisbauer said.
The state review was launched after a criminal grand jury investigation into CU’s football program that described camp monies flowing so loosely that it appeared to be little more than a slush fund.
Twenty checks written by a booster group called The Dear Old CU Fund are part of the state audit. Auditors asked for an outside accounting firm to review the booster group’s checks, according to a person familiar with the review.
Staff writer David Migoya contributed to this report.
Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-820-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
