A University of Kentucky employee has been fired after an audit uncovered hundreds of thousands of dollars had been spent on “inappropriate purchases.”
According to a press release from UK, an employee in the physics and astronomy department was terminated after an initial review of allegations that about $240,000 in lab equipment had been purchased for the department and re-sold on eBay. Steve Ellis was a department coordinator and back-up technology manager.
The University says the finding of the audit were presented to the Audit Committee of the UK Board of Trustees. It found that scientific instruments were purchased by Ellis, but not used in the department labs. It also says that Ellis tried to sell items that were donated to the department.
UK provost Tim Tracy said "Nearly all UK employees do the right things all the time. But on those rare occasions when we do uncover inappropriate activity, we will -- and we do – take action to address the situation. As important, we constantly assess our processes to do everything possible to help prevent a future occurrence. That's exactly what we have done in this unfortunate incidence."
The investigation is ongoing and involves UK police and the U.S. Attorney’s office. Police say they seized multiple items from a storage unit rented by Ellis and more than half of the items they found were owned by the university.