Howard University reportedly ended an agreement this week with the school's controversial chief financial officer after academic deans accused him of mismanaging the university’s fiscal affairs, according to the Washington Post.
Howard’s interim president, Wayne A.I. Frederick, made the announcement Thursday in a letter to the campus community stating that the school "by mutual agreement" had ended its contract with Right Advisory LLC, a consulting firm led by Robert M. Tarola, the Post reports. John Gordon, the university’s controller, has been named interim CFO.
Tarola, an independent contractor, had served as Howard’s CFO since January 2010, the Post reports. Most schools try to fill the position with a staff employee.
Over the summer, the university’s council of deans wrote a letter to members of the board of trustees, expressing their "lack of confidence" in Tarola and the financial data that he was providing to them. The deans stated that "the fiscal direction taken by Mr. Tarola … places the very survival of the university at risk," the Post reports. At the time, President Sidney A. Ribeau, who retired this fall, rejected the allegations and defended the CFO's record.
Read more at the Washington Post.