New UC audit raises more questions about Office of the President

By Emily DeRuy | Bay Area News Group

The University of California doesn’t always follow its own rules for deciding when it’s OK to replace university employees with less-expensive contract workers, according to a new state audit that again raises questions about UC’s central office operations.

According to UC guidelines, its campuses and medical centers are supposed to demonstrate and justify any contracts that will displace university employees. In a review of 31 contracts, however, the audit found issues with two contracts that indicated university employees were placed with outside workers.

The news comes as UC is still dealing with fallout in Sacramento and beyond from a scathing April audit showing the system failed to disclose $175 million in funds even as it prepared to raise tuition for the first time in six years.

That contract displaced 49 career employees and 12 other contract employees, prompting more than a dozen of the former workers to file a suit in May claiming discrimination and harassment.

“I would think (UC) is reading this and saying they might be in some trouble,” said Randall Strauss, one of the lawyers handling the case, which is still in the early stages. “This is certainly welcome information.”

Kurt Ho, 59, of Pittsburg, is one of the workers filing suit. He said he’s “not surprised” by the audit. He worked for UCSF for three and a half years before he was asked to train his replacement, he said.

“It’s very demeaning,” he said. “It’s very awful.”

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[Source]: The Mercury News