SC State University diverted $6.5 million to cover shortfalls

COLUMBIA, South Carolina  -- S.C. State University used $6.5 million from a federal-and-state program intended to aid poor families to cover its cash-flow problems since 2007, according to a state inspector general’s report released Tuesday.

No fraud was found in the money diverted from the school’s 1890 Research & Extension Program, the report said, adding the college continued to make withdrawals as late as January.

The inspector general “identified a pattern of mismanagement allowing this inappropriate subsidizing practice to escalate out of control, masking SCSU’s financial difficulties for a number of years,” the report said. “This practice has only worsened SCSU’s financial situation by allowing deficits to grow while delaying action to address structural business issues causing these deficits.”

S.C. State agreed this month to repay the $6.5 million to the 1890 program from its accounts.

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