Professor accused of misusing $400,000
August 27, 2014
By Anne Halliwell
[email protected]
Former UK mining engineering professor Dongping “Daniel” Tao is accused of misusing more than $400,000 between 2008 and 2013 according to the Department of Mining investigation review.
The internal audit, which began in 2013, found evidence that in working for the university and taking private consulting jobs, Tao billed both parties for expenses totaling more than $62,000. The same audit, dated June 27th, found evidence that Tao fabricated invoices that amounted to more than $31,000 and used grant funds to buy about $9,000 in scientific equipment, which he is also accused of transferring and charging to a client.
“There’s $100,000 in there that directly relates to financial fraud,” UK spokesman Jay Blanton said.
Tao is also accused of using more than $312,000 in university grants and contracts to compensate research assistants for their work on private consulting jobs unrelated to the university.
Tao resigned in December 2013 after being confronted with the internal audit’s findings, according to the internal review. He could not be reached for comment.
In September 2013, a graduate student complained to the College of Engineering about lack of compensation for work done for Tao’s private clients, Blanton said.
During the investigation of that claim, the university’s internal audit reviewed Tao’s grants and contracts, operating and discretionary accounts, and use of UK resources, according to the audit review’s executive summary.
Materials from the audit have been turned over to state and local authorities for review, and the university should not have to seek further legal action at this time, Blanton said.
Much of the difficulty in discovering the alleged financial inaccuracies relates to the volume of private consulting work Tao took on, Blanton said.
“The university allows and even encourages faculty to … lend their expertise in the form of consulting work,” Blanton said, adding that involvement with current research keeps professors ahead of the curve in research.
The university also expects that professors fill out overload forms, indicating the amount of work they are doing outside of normal courses. Blanton said it was clear that not all of the requisite paperwork was completed in Tao’s case.
“I think what we’ve found is that a lot of the appropriate policies and procedures are in place,” Blanton said.
The university will focus on increased filing training and communication, Blanton said, and will also move toward digitizing overload forms.
“We know the vast majority of the people on our campus do the right thing at the right time,” Blanton said.
