Theft or Just Poor Judgement?

When I read this morning that The University System of Maryland is investigating where $40,700 in gift cards intended for needy families were distributed by University of Maryland-Baltimore's School of Social Work staff and students, my first reaction was that this was just an error in judgement. I like to think that people are basically good, so I would like to believe that this was simply a matter of poor judgement and a lack of record keeping.

Here are a few of the details of what happened and the official take on what was and would be done:

"A state audit found university officials "could not document who received the gift cards or what was purchased with the gift cards," which were paid for by a federally funded program. The Office of Legislative Audits' February report said records were not maintained about how the gift cards were dispensed."

"We said they should go back with their auditors and determine if the cards were used properly and kind of account for the $40,000," legislative auditor Bruce Myers said. "They just didn't have any documentation to show it was distributed the way it was supposed to be."

As far as what will be done about this gigantic deal, Myers said if they can't document how the gift cards were used, they could be asked to repay the money. The gift card purchases were made by a University of Maryland-Baltimore employee with a corporate purchasing card between July 2006 and June 2008.

"The employee who purchased the gift cards advised us that these gift cards were distributed to various staff and students of UMB's School of Social Work to purchase items for needy families," the February audit said. "We contacted several staff and students of the School and were advised that the aforementioned employee had provided them with a number of gift cards."

University system officials agreed to conduct an internal audit in their response to the report and say they'll take corrective action.

Mike Lurie, the media relations manager for the University System of Maryland, said the internal audit is a routine response to concerns raised by the state's review.

"The University System of Maryland internal audit staff is following up on the findings in the Office of Legislative Affairs audit," Lurie said. "It is University System of Maryland policy not to comment further in matters like this one."

It does seem pretty stupid that these people did not foresee having to account for where the gift cards went, at least! All they would have had to do is write down who they gave them to, the name of the families, etc. It does make you wonder if there was fraud involved, but as I said, I would like to think that somebody just had their head in the clouds.

What do you think?