The improper use of more than $20,000 in the College of Pharmacy’s continuing education department did not come from tuition money or state appropriated funds, a UK spokesman said Wednesday.

The continuing education department — from which four employees were fired for the undocumented funds — is self-supported by symposium and course fees, said UK spokesman Jimmy Stanton.

The department — located in the Kentucky Utilities Building downtown — offers continuing education courses to doctors and professionals in the College of Pharmacy and College of Medicine who must stay up to date in their fields.The internal audit was part of the routine investigations of around 20 departments each year, Stanton said.

These audits rarely find anything more than small bookkeeping errors but in this case, charges accrued on the department’s procurement card raised red flags that triggered further investigation, he said.

“Our internal auditing department is very good at what they do,” Stanton said. “They are extremely thorough. If there is a misuse of funds, this department is going to catch it.”

Among those catches was a $1,440 holiday dinner at Malone’s, including a 43 percent gratuity, which totaled more than $500, according to the Feb. 2 investigative report. There was more than $2,800 spent on tickets to sporting events and $2,052 was spent on alcohol during a three-day trip to Las Vegas.

During that trip, $1,600 was spent on alcohol in one night, including a $475 bottle of wine, according to the investigative report.

UK employees are not allowed to charge alcohol to any account that receives state appropriations or tuition money, Stanton said. The continuing education fund did not fall into this category.

Other questionable purchases included $569 for limousine services and $799 for the purchase of an Apple Cinema flat screen HD display.

The audit observed that in 2007, the continuing education office staff attended a “working meal” on an average of once a month, totaling $2,052 for the year. In 2008, the monthly meals doubled to twice a month and the annual total increased 54 percent to $3,771.

Most of the costs were charged to the department’s procurement card, or credit card given to university departments to increase the efficiency of the purchase and payment of small dollar purchases. There are several restrictions on what can be charged on the pro-card, including alcoholic beverages, gifts, insurances, caterers, airline expenses, prescription drugs, flowers, communication services and promotional items.

Following the audit and further investigation, College of Pharmacy Dean Kenneth Roberts fired the continuing education interim director, Steven Scrivner, and clinical business development director William Bradley Shelton. Roberts also fired his chief of staff, Doug Bruce, and a college finance administrator, Steven Gray.

Scrivner, Shelton and Gray were fired for violating UK business procedures, according to the audit report. Bruce was fired for lack of appropriate leadership and oversight.

This came less than a week after Roberts announced he would step down as dean of the College of Pharmacy to pursue teaching. Stanton said that move was completely unrelated.

While UK is always looking for ways to cut costs, Stanton said there wouldn’t necessarily be an increase in the number of audits to look for instances of wasteful spending.

“This doesn’t mean we won’t continue to regularly look into the spending of various departments,” Stanton said. “It’s clear this process is working. In the case of the continuing education department, there was a lack of oversight. The internal audit caught that and we are looking into solving that now.”

Stanton said UK is looking to fill a position that would oversee the entire continuing education department, though no one has been hired yet.