The Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) has been plagued by scandals ranging from data breaches to filing false claims for grants monies under the leadership of Chancellor Rufus Glasper. This week, the District agreed to pay $4.08 million to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act that it submitted false claims to the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) concerning AmeriCorps state and national grants.
“Those who receive federal funds must deal with the government openly and honestly,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Justice Department for the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The Department of Justice will ensure that financial assistance provided by the Corporation for National and Community Service is received only by eligible individuals who satisfy CNCS’s mission of promoting service and education.”
CNCS is an independent federal agency that administers AmeriCorps, among other national service programs. According to the DOJ, MCCCD obtained AmeriCorps funding for Project Ayuda, a program that proposed to engage students in national service. In order to receive an AmeriCorps education award, a student had to meet certain service-hour requirements.
MCCCD allegedly improperly certified that students had completed the required number of service hours so that they would earn an education award. This resulted in CNCS providing education awards to these students. MCCCD also allegedly improperly received grant funds from CNCS to administer the project.
“Our internal process uncovered MCCCD’s mismanagement, and we worked with the Justice Department to ensure that taxpayer dollars were recovered,” said CNCS’s General Counsel Valerie Green. “This is an example of how interagency collaboration works.”
“Taxpayers are justifiably outraged when a community fails to receive promised services because national service funds were misused,” said CNCS’s Inspector General Deborah J. Jeffrey. “We hope that this settlement will deter other grantees from similar misconduct.”
The allegations resolved by this settlement arose from a whistleblower lawsuit filed under the False Claims Act by Christine Hunt, an MCCCD employee. Under the False Claims Act, private citizens can sue on behalf of the government and share in any recovery. Hunt’s share of the settlement is $775,827.
Much of the issues with leadership was brought to the forefront during the data breach scandal. In that case, Glasper ignored warnings by IT employees of problems within the IT department and in the computer system.
2.4 million current and former students and employees of the Maricopa County Community College District received notices that their personal information might have been exposed as a result of a hack into the District’s computer system. The data includes employees’ Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers and bank account information, and students’ academic information.
The FBI notified the district on April 29, 2013, that it had found a Web site offering data from the district’s IT system for sale.
The District hid the breach from the public for seven months saying that the failure to disclose was because the District was investigating the extent of the exposure.
“MCCCD continued use of taxpayer dollars to settle their mistakes without accepting responsibility is NOT stewardship, it is a disgrace and a national embarrassment,” said Miguel Corzo, one of the employees who tried to warn Glasper of the potential for data breaches. “Millions of dollars are being diverted to pay for legal costs to protect the MCCCD Administration rather than education in our community. MCCCD needs new leadership.”
“It is time for the newly elected board members and other public officials to make necessary changes to stop the mismanagement of public funds and the pattern of corruption that has taken over MCCD. Taking a stand to expose MCCCD is not without it’s challenges.” Corzo concluded, “I admire Mrs. Hunt for her courage and perseverance. Others should follow her lead.”
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