By MATT CHITTUM
THE ROANOKE TIMES

Under a new spending policy being considered at Virginia Military Institute, Superintendent Josiah Bunting could use college funds to buy alcohol for college functions.

He could not, however, throw retirement parties or send flowers that look like personal gifts.

The audit committee of the VMI Board of Visitors discussed the policy changes Friday and two weeks ago after a state investigation of Bunting's spending practices and a long spate of embarrassing press coverage of it.

The board will likely approve the policy in February, but the business staff plans to follow it in the meantime anyway.

The committee has already changed the way Bunting's discretionary account is budgeted. The panel wants to control Bunting's habitual overspending and is considering whether the business staff should give quarterly reports on Bunting's spending activity.

In general, the changes in both policy and budgeting would maintain the status quo for spending at VMI, but some of the expenditures Bunting made in the past would be forbidden.

During an investigation that began in April, the state auditor of public accounts found $47,000 in purchases of alcohol, flowers, gifts and books from Bunting's discretionary account that were not clearly in support of VMI's mission or for his personal use. Bunting was cleared of misusing college funds because the auditor determined that a VMI policy forbidding those kinds of purchases was never formally adopted by the board and therefore was not enforceable.

"What policy we had, we weren't even adhering to it ourselves," said VMI Comptroller Bob Gilbert. "Well, we were adhering to it, but we were making exceptions."

In part, the new policy lets VMI officials do within the rules what they had always done in the past, Gilbert said.

The old policy barred the purchase of alcohol, but Bunting's account was used to buy liquor and wine for entertaining college guests at his house.

The new policy still forbids the purchase of alcohol, but includes a written exception for "functions that are official business of the institute and that are related to its mission." Gilbert's office must approve exceptions in advance.

The new policy also changes a rule forbidding purchase of flowers and gifts to "non-corporate" flowers and gifts.

Bunting spent over $16,000 on flowers in four years, many of which were for VMI friends or alumni, but a few were sent with cards that never mentioned the college. Bunting also sent magazine gift subscriptions the same way. Gilbert said that can't happen under the new policy.

Most of the purchases forbidden under the old policy are the same in the new policy, but formal adoption by the board will make them VMI law. That means a retirement party like the $1,500 bash Bunting threw for a retiring VMI board chairman in Richmond would not be allowed.

Following a recommendation of the state auditor, another policy under consideration requires the superintendent or the business office to report to the audit committee any spending policy violations.

Some additional post-purchase reviews are in place already.

Staff from the procurement, budget and comptroller's offices are meeting quarterly with Bunting's staff to make sure purchases follow the rules, Gilbert said, "so we don't get a year and a half of surprises all at once." So far, no purchases have been rejected, he said.

The meetings are also designed to keep Bunting within his budget, by keeping tabs on how much he's spent each quarter.

Bunting overspent his account by more than $120,000 his first four years at VMI, even while the amount allotted was increased three times. The account started the current year with $140,000.

In the past, Bunting was given the account as a lump sum. This year, the account is divided into separate line items including books, flowers and gifts, and entertaining expenses.

The amounts in each line item are based on how much Bunting has spent in those categories in the past.

The budget also includes$25,000 for entertaining at Bunting's quarters.

"Is that enough money? It doesn't seem like a whole lot of money to me," audit committee member Waite Rawls III said at a meeting two weeks ago, when the committee first saw the budget for the discretionary account.

"But it seems like a whole lot to a lot of people," said board president Bruce Gottwald.