New Mexico State University confirmed late Thursday that it placed five employees of the facilities department on leave during an ongoing investigation into alleged misuse of funds and resources.
The university released a statement confirming that one of the employees was Richard MacRorie, associate vice president of facilities for planning, physical resources and university relations. The news release stated that he was placed on leave not because he was accused of misusing funds, but “to ensure the investigation would be as effective as possible.”
MacRorie has returned to work.
Meanwhile, two sources with knowledge of the situation say investigators are looking into a number of issues related to the potential abuse of university funds and resources. Some allegations involve the use of facilities department resources on personal construction projects at employees’ homes. Others involve allegations of abuse of overtime.
In addition to assistance from the FBI, the NMSU police are also receiving help from the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Department and financial auditors.
Investigators are looking at the overtime employees claimed they worked while constructing a parking lot completed just before the start of the fall 2006 semester. In addition, they’re looking at the time and resources used for a number of projects at the homes of facilities employees, including a porch, roofing work and a spare room.
President Michael Martin has said the university doesn’t yet know if there was criminal activity. Investigators suspect that the potential loss could be hundreds of thousands of dollars, but don’t yet know that it wasn’t a much smaller amount.
University officials have not released the current employment status of four of the five employees placed on leave several weeks ago, but Martin told me no one has been fired.
One source tells me, however, that at least one has received a notice that the university intends to fire him later this month. And John Salopek, construction supervisor for the facilities department’s roofing and construction division, told the Las Cruces Sun-News he is being fired in retaliation for complaining about the mishandling of construction materials by the parking division. He also admitted, however, to using a university dump truck without permission.
“Let’s put it this way – I can’t be too mad because some of it I did to myself,” Salopek told the newspaper. “But I’m madder than hell as to the way that they did it. What I did out there is nothing more than anybody else has done over there.”
Salopek hasn’t hired a lawyer, the Sun-News reported.
Martin, elaborating on comments he made to me early Thursday afternoon, said in the news release that the university is taking the allegations seriously.
“If and when anything of substance is revealed, we will inform the public,” Martin said. “Until then, we will continue to conduct the business of the university and protect the reputation of the good people who serve it.”
A prior version of this posting should have stated that, while investigators suspect the loss could be significant, they don’t yet know that it wasn’t minor. The omission has been corrected.