THE GROWING scandal at UMDNJ is a festering boil, and the
State Commission of Investigation had better lance it quick.
The SCI, an independent watchdog, announced last week that
it is going to investigate spending and hiring at the University
of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark as a part
of a wider look at state universities.
That's great, so long as the SCI begins its work with a comprehensive
investigation into the alarming allegations of patronage,
no-bid contracts and other insider deals at UMDNJ. With every
passing day, new questions of impropriety arise about the
management of the school, which gets $200 million in state
funding.
Until that SCI probe is completed, it makes no sense to go
ahead with the inauguration of University President John Petillo,
who makes $600,000 a year. The elaborate festivities are scheduled
for Tuesday, but at this point, too many questions about the
college persist. Who knows what other skeletons will be found
in the medical college's closet - especially in light of this
independent probe into its contracts and hiring.
The scandal began to emerge in March, just after it was announced
that Mr. Petillo's inauguration and related events were going
to cost more than $100,000 - at a time when the state is facing
a multibillion-dollar shortfall. Mr. Petillo became president
last November after a $350,000 nationwide search - a search
that ended with the selection of the inside candidate. Once
the media started looking deeper, an outrageous pattern of
no-bid contracts, dubious charitable donations and woefully
inadequate financial oversight emerged.
Here's a sampling of what has turned up so far:
It was revealed late last week that shortly after Mr.
Petillo was named to the top job, he created the $156,000-a-year
position of vice president for government affairs and hired
lobbyist Christy Davis-Jackson to fill it. She is a former
aide to Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., and the wife of the Rev.
Reginald Jackson, arguably the most powerful black leader
in the state. Was the job really needed, or was this a question
of patronage and connections? That's what an independent
investigation must determine.
Responding to requests from journalists, the university
has begun to release lists of no-bid contracts, beginning
with the year 2002, when $126 million in such contracts
were issued - including a whopping $900,000 in fees to outside
lobbyists. Who was minding the store?
In the months between former Gov. James McGreevey's election
in November 2001 and his inauguration in early 2002, UMDNJ
paid a lawyer $75,000 to "represent the university's
interests" during that period. The lawyer, Ronald White,
apparently did no work in return, and later was at the center
of a huge political scandal in Philadelphia. He died shortly
before the trial, now concluding, began. Why was the university
paying huge sums to the likes of Mr. White?
More recently, Mr. Petillo gave a no-bid $95,000 grant
to a social service agency run by Newark political kingpin
Steven Adubato Sr. - after Mr. Adubato had backed Mr. Petillo
for the UMDNJ presidency. Mr. Petillo says that he will
now review all no-bid contracts above $50,000. Does that
mean a $49,000 grant to Mr. Adubato would be OK?
From a taxpayer-funded account, UMDNJ made a $10,000
donation to a Newark politician's supposed charity - a breast-cancer
awareness group - even though the organization is not authorized
to solicit donations. Why should the university be giving
taxpayer money to charities in the first place?
Put all these items together, and you get the clear picture
that UMDNJ's management is on one huge gravy train, with
Mr. Petillo as the engineer and the taxpayers paying the
freight.
Despite it all, a spokeswoman for Mr. Petillo says the inauguration
will proceed as planned because it's an academic tradition
that also celebrates UMDNJ's "accomplishments and its
new direction."
New direction? Not only has Mr. Petillo done little to clean
up the mess at UMDNJ, but he has given the university a
few more black eyes to boot. The SCI probe can't come soon
enough.
Tomorrow: Another day, another scandal. Monday's editorial
criticizes blatant mismanagement at the state-run Schools
Construction Corp.
