Asantehene's trip sparks controversy

SAVANNAH, Georgia (USA) -- Savannah State University has been accused of misspending thousands of federal dollars by bringing an African king and his entourage to campus and flying nine students to China.

Savannah State paid a $21,657 reimbursement to the U.S. Education Department on July 12 and acknowledged some fault for misspending Title III funds, which have been given to historically black colleges to make up for decades of inadequate and unfair state funding.

The money was meant to be used to create educational opportunities for as many students as possible, but the school used it for a variety of other purposes, the department said Tuesday.

University President Carlton Brown said he believed there was educational value in bringing King Osei Tutu II, leader of the Ashanti Nation, to the school.

About $20,000 was spent to fly the king of the Ashantis and his 16-person delegation to a campus symposium in 2001. The Education Department questioned what role a king plays in international education. The costs included a caravan of limousines, rooms at an inn and an honorarium for the king.

The Education Department also cited a July 2000 trip to China that cost $15,912 for nine students. The Education Department denied a request to fund the trip, but an auditor found the university used Title III money for it anyway.

"There were some instances where it was determined that expenditures were excessive and unallowable," according to a U.S.

Department of Education review from October 2001.

"What happened was the faculty, feeling it expedient, simply signed the student checks a nd put them in the account for travel, which is not what's supposed to happen," Brown said.

Brown blamed the unauthorized spending on a former professor who coordinated the trip, even though two administrators had to sign off on every expenditure and plan for the program.

"We also acknowledge institutional error in other findings though we must state that the actions of faculty in several instances were in contradiction to our instructions and intentions," Brown wrote in his remittance letter.

Savannah State's nine other Title III programs were found to be acceptable by the Education Department. Those programs spent money on computers and a marine science research center.