For Immediate Release:                                                      

May 6, 2021                                                               

Nearly $300,000 in Findings for Recovery in University of Toledo Audit

Columbus – Auditor of State Keith Faber’s Office released the 2020 financial audit of the University of Toledo. The audit included two findings for recovery totaling $276,957 related to improper uses of the University credit card and petty cash, as well as noncompliance with state statute and University policy.

“Students pay enough for college, they don’t deserve to be footing the bill for employees padding their bank accounts and abusing University policies for their own financial gain,” said Auditor Faber.

The first finding for recovery covered the review period of May 1, 2012 through January 31, 2017, where auditors noted several instances of noncompliance with University policies and state statute.

Dr. Mary Kay Smith, former Associate Professor and Director, Department of Psychiatry, authorized/approved the following improper purchases:

• Sixteen payments totaling $243,700 to The University Church where Dr. Smith’s husband, Dr. Julian Davies, is the founding pastor of the church.  The MedTapp grant awarded to the University assigns Dr. Smith as the principal investigator and Dr. Davies is listed on the grant as the church’s sub awardee principal investigator. This creates a conflict of interest for Dr. Smith.

• Seven personal purchases using her University issued p-card in the amount of $4,497, for such items including her son’s tuition fees, a leather bag, shoes, and a slushie machine.

A finding for recovery was issued against Dr. Mary Kay Smith in favor of the University of Toledo Research Incentive Fund for $4,396, UT Interprofessional Health Care Provider Development Fund for $91,963 and MedTapp Fund for $151,838.

The second finding for recovery was issued against former Associate Athletics Director of Finance, Anthony Zaworski, for public money illegally expended totaling $18,280 and public money collected but not accounted for totaling $10,480 in favor of the University of Toledo Athletic fund.

Zaworski was responsible for managing the day to day business operations for the department of Intercollegiate Athletics, which included obtaining petty cash funds for game day parking, athletic event marketing promotions, other various athletic department activities, and depositing parking receipts collected after each athletic event.

There were three cash advances requested by Mr. Zaworski totaling $18,280 between January 2015 and December 2015 which were deposited into his personal bank account contrary to University policy. The University performed an internal audit over athletics for the time period September 26, 2015 through February 2, 2016, which discovered athletic event parking cash receipts of $10,480 were not deposited, which Mr. Zaworski was also responsible for depositing.

A full copy of this report is available online.

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The Auditor of State’s office, one of five independently elected statewide offices in Ohio is responsible for auditing more than 6,000 state and local government agencies. Under the direction of Auditor Keith Faber, the office also provides financial services to local governments, investigates and prevents fraud in public agencies, and promotes transparency in government.