An eleven-month travel expense ordeal that started with a Northern Illinois University audit issue has come to an end. A state audit report in March 2015 found NIU improperly reimbursed former consultant Ron Walters for traveling from NIU to his home state, Washington.
The report says travel expenses between work and home cannot be reimbursed and recommended the school to get the money back from Walters.
NIU officials previously said legal action was considered in July 2015, when Walters still didn’t return his reimbursement.
Al Phillips is vice president of finance at NIU. He says the school and Walters reached an agreement which required Walters to pay almost $18,000. That’s more than half of the $34,000 he owed the school. But, Phillips says:
“Had we gone to the point of initiating a lawsuit, the cost of – in terms of time and resources and man hours – would have very quickly exceeded any amount that we would’ve received back from Mr. Walters.”
Phillips says changes in administrative policies after review will ensure something like this won’t happen again.