Investigation Finds Tailgate Catering Invoices to ULL Inflated; Football Tickets Traded for Meal Plans for Athletic Department Staff

An investigative audit released Monday found that, between 2009 and 2013, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s (ULL) exclusive food service provider, Sodexo, may have overbilled ULL $5,454 on catering services for university-sponsored tailgating events, and also catered private graduation and birthday parties for the children of former Student Union Director Anthony Daniel -- at no cost to Daniel.

A 2014 ULL internal audit raised allegations of misappropriation of funds and prompted the state auditor’s investigation. The resulting report found that two Sodexo employees claimed Daniel wanted to increase the amount invoiced on university tailgating event invoices and put the extra funds ULL paid to Sodexo in an account to pay for future catering events.

Daniel’s attorney responded to the report, saying that Daniel never requested free catering services and has since requested invoices and paid back the amounts owing for the private catering events.

The report also questioned whether Sodexo violated Louisiana law when it spent $41,637 from a “Marketing Support Fund” set up under its five-year food service lease agreement with ULL. Sodexo used that money to purchase 1,120 ULL football tickets (360 regular season game tickets and 760 bowl game tickets), and then gave those tickets to Daniel, whom the report says distributed them to university employees.

The report noted that Sodexo is responsible for routine cleaning and housekeeping in the campus food preparation and service areas under its contract with ULL. However, the report notes that Sodexo employees were not cleaning the service area of the student union dining hall as the contract required. Instead, ULL housekeeping staff would clean the dining hall service area. In return, Sodexo would load meal plans onto the ULL staff’s university-issued ID cards. Card transaction records show that, between 2009 and 2014, Sodexo purchased 5,837 meals (costing $33,213) for those housekeeping staff members -- a possible violation of law, the report notes.

ULL responded to the state auditor that it will clarify its written contracts and seek reimbursement from Sodexo for ULL’s housekeeping staff’s labor.
The report also found that, between 2009 and 2014, ULL gave Sodexo 15 sets of general admission ULL season football tickets each year. In return, Sodexo gave the university Athletic Department meal plans of five to 10 meals a week each. Records showed Sodexo was providing 26 such meal plans as of February 2015. The report questions whether ULL had the authority to make this exchange because it was not provided for in the ULL-Sodexo written contract.

To this finding, ULL responded that, over the six-year period covered in the audit, it had given Sodexo $9,900 worth of tickets (90 general admission season football tickets at a maximum face value of $110 each). ULL says it received in exchange $59,193 in meals for the Athletic Department over the same period of time -- $49,293 in excess of equivalent value, ULL notes.

Sodexo responded with a letter apologizing for its two former Sodexo employees, whom it notes “did not act in accordance with the company’s high professional standards and business practices.”