Chancellor Erroll Davis and P-Card Fraud

The current chancellor of the University System of Georgia, Erroll Davis, came to his current position from a successful career as a business executive. The former CEO of Alliant Corporation, Davis is the first non-academic and also the first African American to hold the chancellor's job as a permanent position.

In light of Chancellor Davis's corporate background and his recent emphasis on streamlining university administration and our service to students, it is ironic that the fraudulent use of state procurement cards ("P-Cards") should have come to light under his watch. Testifying before a subcommittee of the Georgia House of Representatives headed by Representative John Heard (R - Lawrenceville), Chancellor Davis implied that P-Card fraud is somehow related to the focus of universities on academics at the expense of customer service. I find this comment very self-serving on his part. Those of us who are focused on academics may not be skilled in personnel management, but we are not the ones committing this fraud.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and reporter Andrea Jones are to be commended in any case for staying on top of this story and providing an online blog forum for it to be discussed by Georgia citizens. I am surprised that more students are not taking an interest, as it is really their money that was stolen as much as "the taxpayers."