Amid concerns about multiple red flags, the Florida Board of Governors is confident in Florida A&M University −but still cautious − as efforts are being made to fix ongoing operational and financial audit issues , which could take as long as a year to correct.
FAMU's Vice President for Audit Credentials Joseph Maleszewski gave a presentation during a Sept. 11 Board of Governors audit and compliance committee meeting on New College of Florida's campus to discuss progress.
And the university's recently appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer Kelvin Lawson followed up with more details, which include plans of hiring an accounting firm in the coming weeks out of a pool of eight unnamed firms to help correct the wrongs.
New FAMU President Marva Johnson − who has been in the role for a little over a month − also shared her perspective on the flawed financial records: "I started my career as an auditor, so to have to sit here before you all, if this had been an organization that I had the privilege of leading, it would be embarrassing."
She added, "I hope to never have to come and present a similar finding to you about how we're fixing problems of this nature."
Previous coverage: FAMU audit fallout: School's CFO under fire as red flags multiply
The FAMU officials' updates to the governing board come after an auditor general's March 2025 report on the university's finances for the fiscal year ending in June 2024 discovered delayed bank reconciliations, vendor payment delays, weaknesses in internal controls and accounting practices and a lack of staff involvement.
The findings occurred under former FAMU President Larry Robinson's leadership ahead of his resignation last year.
"You don't own what got us here," Board of Governors vice chair Alan Levine told Johnson at the meeting. He was also a strong supporter of Johnson's candidacy for president during a contentious presidential search process . "But it's a problem nevertheless that, going forward, is yours."
Levine went on: "These are some basic things, and there's evidence of a lack of structure in the financial function. It's just got to get fixed. I have every confidence that this was visible to you during the search process, and I know you were aware of it, but we have to get past this. With all the progress that we make, it just keeps pulling us back."
Johnson told the board FAMU's administration is committed to fundamentally reinvesting in the university's financial infrastructure in order to "drive operational excellence."
"The work includes not just fixing the problems and creating best practices to ensure we don't have the problems going forward, but it really is creating the infrastructure that we need for excellence," said Johnson, the university's 13th president. "This is going to be fundamental to our success going forward."
FAMU's progress updates, plans to resolve audit issues
According to Maleszewski, the audit findings revealed that FAMU had 190 invoices totaling over $934,000 that were not timely paid, and items were between 45 and 1,031 days old with an average of 311 days.
But as of Aug. 26, the number of untimely paid invoices decreased to 41 and totaled $81,000. They range between 25 and 100 days old with no invoices older than 100 days.
"FAMU has instituted weekly tracking and escalation protocols for invoices with a monthly scorecard that is reported to our board chair on these matters," Maleszewski told the governing board. "Of course, the overall goal is to achieve clean financial statement audits on future audit cycles."
Plans going forward consist of additional third-party support, accountability to Johnson through weekly and monthly updates and continued recruitment and training of qualified staff.
Auditors also reported that the FAMU Athletics Department hadn't been audited since June 30, 2021 even though the university is required to submit financial data for the program every year. But biweekly meetings between the department and Nicole Murry – FAMU's acting Senior Vice President of Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer – have been instituted to resolve the issue.
Murry's appointment in July comes after FAMU's concerning audit reports drew the Board of Governors' attention to the role of FAMU CFO Rebecca Brown at a June 18 meeting. Brown has been on personal leave since July, and it is unclear whether she will return to the university role.
FAMU President Johnson assures board 'there will be critical milestones'
While FAMU hired the national accounting firm Cherry Bekaert for assistance since May, Tallahassee-based accounting firm Thomas Howell Ferguson has also been hired for advisory services to support audit readiness. The cost of the firms' services to the university are unclear.
But regarding the university's plans of hiring an additional firm for more assistance, Board of Governors member Ken Jones pointed out how the costs proposed by the eight firms being considered range from $24,000 to $2.6 million. He questioned the wide difference.
"It is a wide disparity of pricing, but rest assured that each of the firms were given the same scope of work," Lawson said. He also explained how the selected firm's main functions will be to perform an assessment, provide on-the-ground support and develop best practices and training over a 12-month period.
"It will take a year, but there will be critical milestones that we can report on and show progress on over the course of the year," Johnson said.
While Lawson gave Florida State University's Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration Kyle Clark a shoutout for his help as FAMU works on resolving its audit issues, Jones encouraged Johnson to lean on her peers − the other 11 State University System presidents − for assistance and advice.
Board of Governors chair Brian Lamb reminded the FAMU officials that they will need to continue presenting updates at future audit and compliance committee meetings "until we all can hand-on-heart look at each other and feel really good about the outlook."
"I've got confidence in this leadership team," Lamb said. "Don't misconstrue our tenacity and intensity around this to signal a lack of confidence."
Tarah Jean is the higher education reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat, a member of the USA TODAY Network – Florida. She can be reached at tjean@tallahassee.com . Follow her on X: @tarahjean_ .
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Board of Governors, FAMU president address audit red flags
