Aug. 27, 1999 VMI panel won't answer spending questions A state auditor has reviewed purchases of gifts, flowers and alcohol from a discretionary fund. By MATT CHITTUM THE ROANOKE TIMES The audit committee of the Virginia Military Institute Board of Visitors is eager to deal with questions raised by the investigation of Superintendent Josiah Bunting III's spending. But the four-member group is stymied because it doesn't have an official report about what might have been done wrong, its chairman said. The committee spent about 45 minutes Thursday alternately saying it was too early to suggest solutions to the possible problems, and then doing just that. The most specific suggestion was adding an internal auditor to VMI's staff. "Until we get that report, we can't do anything. We're stymied," said committee chairman Bob Copty of Roanoke. "It would look pretty bad to the people doing our audit if we go looking at cures now, before the report is in." Rhett Clarkson, a board member who is not on the audit committee but attended the meeting, said it was going too far to use the word "problem" to describe what state auditors and state police have been examining. VMI business executive John Rowe suggested the word "irregularity," but Clarkson rejected that, too. The state Auditor of Public Accounts has reviewed purchases from Bunting's $100,000-plus discretionary account, including receipts and vouchers for gifts, flowers and alcohol. All of those kinds of purchases are disallowed under state and VMI rules, but have gone on at VMI for years because of an understanding that they are sometimes necessary. The report is now in the hands of the Lexington/Rockbridge County commonwealth's attorney, and the state police are doing further investigation at his request. Clarkson said press reports have hyped the story to an unfair degree because Bunting could ultimately be exonerated. But he added later that, "It seems to me the logical thing to solve the whole thing is to have an internal auditor." VMI once had an internal auditor but he left about six years ago, Rowe told the committee. Simultaneously, orders came down from the governor to eliminate as many state jobs as possible, so the auditor was never replaced. The discussion ended with a motion to go into closed session to discuss the job performance of Bunting. Copty summed it up by telling his committee, "I think we've learned a whole lot. Unfortunately, it was a very painful way to learn it."