KNOXVILLE – A state office tasked with investigating allegations of fraud, waste and abuse in government and publicly funded entities has released three reports in the past five weeks involving the University of Tennessee athletic department.
The latest investigation, released Wednesday by the state comptroller’s office, details how athletic department staff members violated university policy by accepting golf trips from prospective or current business partners.
The investigation concluded university officials failed to require training for employees on the university’s gift acceptance policy and that officials “did not adequately supervise or oversee some trips by university employees traveling on university time.”
All three of the recently released investigation reports came after the comptroller’s office was alerted from within the university of the issues in question. The incidents that led to the investigations occurred mostly during the tenure of former athletic director Dave Hart. Phillip Fulmer has been Tennessee’s athletic director since early December.
The report released Wednesday explains that two current athletic department employees accepted tickets to the 2014 Masters from a company marketing its product to the university. The potential vendor also provided access to Berckmans Place, the report said.