Mike Burton, ex-vice provost of Portland State’s School of Extended Studies, was recently sentenced to 18 months of probation for official misconduct regarding traveling expenses he claimed on university expense reports. His actions, and the fallout from them, have caused university policy changes.
Mike Burton, ex-vice provost of Portland State’s School of Extended Studies, was recently sentenced to 18 months of probation for official misconduct regarding traveling expenses he claimed on university expense reports. His actions, and the fallout from them, have caused university policy changes.
Burton traveled to Paris in fall 2010 and claimed the trips were made for educational purposes on his expense reports, but this information was proven to be false, as the conference he had allegedly attended had taken place more than a week before his visit. Burton resigned from hisposition at PSU in June 2011 and has been under heavy scrutiny from the local community ever since. On Monday, May 23, he pled guilty to misconduct and received his sentence.
His sentence includes mandatory attendance for support classes for alcohol abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder, stemming from both his November DUI arrest and his experiences in Vietnam. He will also be writing the university a letter of apology and performing up to 40 hours of community service for his actions.
PSU has instituted a variety of policy changes as a result of the fallout from the Burton case. Most of them have to do with the School of Extended Studies and involve stronger regulation of business practices and controls.
All deans and vice provosts are now required to provide more detailed itineraries prior to leaving on trips, so much so that the trips must be mapped out to the day. Signed Travel Authorization forms are now required in order for university officials to receive travel reimbursement. A larger volume of documentation is now needed for trip verification. A new officer was hired in the Extended Studies department whose sole job is to meet regularly with university business officials for fiscal matters. Additionally, the university purchased a new software system in order to better log revenues and expenses.
“We do work with a system of trust and verify. Changes to policies are to ensure that we have more verification of reimbursement. We have made our reimbursement policies more stringent and are requiring more verification,” PSU Director of Communications Scott Gallagher said.
During its audit in June 2011, the Oregon University System questioned the validity of Burton’s expense reports. A meeting was called between Burton, the Internal Audit Division and other PSU officials. Burton was reported as making erroneous statements in the meeting, and the next day, after being told that he would immediately be put on administrative leave, Burton tendered his resignation via a letter to PSU. The IAD continued to investigate the case over the following months.
“We concluded that there was not a valid conference to justify PSU’s reimbursement of Mr. Burton’s European trip. While Mr. Burton may have attended one to two business meetings, he was unable to account for the majority of the trip itinerary,” said Patricia Snopkowski, executive director of the Internal Audit Division of the Oregon University System in an August 2011 statement after its initial investigation.
“We take seriously the findings of the audits and are taking aggressive steps to respond. We have made staffing changes, tightened policies and procedures in the School of Extended Studies and will continue to improve business practices and controls. We are seeking reimbursement from Mike Burton for the European travel expenses identified in the audit and have referred our concerns to the Oregon Ethics Commission. We do not tolerate university employees using public funds for private trips or any other inappropriate purpose,” said PSU President Wim Wiewel in an official statement immediately following the audit results.
Over the month that followed, the IAD analyzed PSU’s checks and balances system and ability to verify and control reimbursement to employees. It was ultimately decided that the university needed to strengthen its related policies.
“We recommend that university management update signature delegations and continue to provide routine travel training. We further recommend that university management reevaluate the travel review process to ensure that it strategically addresses risks associated with non-compliance,” Snopkowski said in another official statement in September 2011.
The university condemns Burton’s behavior but insists that it has made the proper changes and instituted the proper regulations to prevent such an incident from ever occurring again.
“We were really disappointed in his actions. But we took it very seriously and took action to get the money back and change the reimbursement policy to prevent it from happening again,” Gallagher said.
