Jonesboro, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – Dec. 11, 2024 – An Arkansas State University internal audit has revealed “questionable payments” exceeding $525,000 to international recruitment agents.
A report from A-State’s Internal Audit Department (IAD) cited a lack of internal controls, including “inadequate supporting documentation for payments, and lack of adequate internal control policies and procedures” from June 30, 2015, to June 30, 2024, as cause for the payments.
These “questionable payments” were made to agents and subagents with the International Programs Department and totaled $507,787 and $18,415, respectively.
“Staff of the International Programs Department were instructed to utilize agents’ codes when international students had not listed an agent on their application or listed an agent that was not a partner of A-State,” the report noted.
These agents are responsible for recruiting international students to the college. The number of recruiters A-State works with varies over time due to mergers, name changes, or the agency going out of business, but the university consistently works with 50-60 agents. At A-State, an agent can receive at least $100 a semester per student they recruit, school officials said.
“There were questionable payments, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they were improper payments,” said Jeff Hankins, ASU Systems Vice President for Strategic Communications and Economic Development. “There’s only so far an internal audit can go to explain or investigate this, and this is why the legislative audit determined this is going to be turned over to the (prosecuting) attorney and the attorney general’s office to determine whether there is further action to be done.”
A-State Chancellor Todd Shields and ASU Systems Vice President for University Relations Shane Broadway were present at the Dec. 5 audit hearing, held by the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee in Little Rock.
“This was an issue that was identified by Chancellor Shields. He then reported it to our internal audit staff,” Broadway said. “Our internal processes and procedures have been created and modified around the International Programs Department to prevent further issues like the one noted by the board.”
These new processes require recruiters to log into their own portals with unique login information.
“When you log in and you say, ‘I am recruiting a student here,’ we have a record of that,” Shields said. “When the student does come to A-State, we verify that that was your recruiter that came through there. Then at the back end, we’re making sure that student is enrolled and that they are in good standing, then we will pay the recruiter their fees for recruiting a successful student.”
Shields added that this process was not in place before.
“We cannot speak to why things were not done in the past,” Hankins said. “All we can control is how we handle things now and, in the future, and we’re confident that we have made changes and put in place proper internal controls.”
The chancellor said he received an anonymous tip in spring 2023 that proper records were not being kept with certain recruiters. Shields did not name the recruiters in the hearing, but said the university had stopped payments and no longer worked with them. He added that while he believed this was an isolated incident, the university was taking the situation seriously.
The agencies involved were TASMAC and RISEUP, Hankins confirmed to JRN. A-State canceled contracts with both firms.
The report has been referred to the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office and the 2nd Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney’s office for review. The International Programs Department did not return phone calls for a comment.