An audit of expenses and credit card use by leadership at Connecticut State Colleges and Universities revealed a “systemic problem,” the state’s comptroller said, citing the misspending of thousands of dollars on food, entertainment and transportation by nearly all the campus presidents. The audit was released Wednesday morning after Gov. Ned Lamont requested “a comprehensive report” on CSCU’s finances — including a review of purchases made on state P-Cards, spending on meals and entertainment, use of state-owned vehicles and tax reporting by CSCU leadership, as well as an audit of the system’s financial practices — in late October. The probe came after a CT Insider report on CSCU Chancellor Terrence Cheng’s expenditures from his hiring in July 2021 through May 2024. The report highlighted expensive meals including $60 steaks, $490 chauffeured rides and other questionable spending. “Based on our findings, this is a systemic problem that is impacting the entire CSCU leadership and their staff,” Comptroller Sean Scanlon said at a press conference Wednesday. “The things we found range from expensive meals, to livery services, to room service, to dry cleaning, to improper tickets to events that were not school-related functions, paying for the cellphone bills and Eversource bills of students without clear adherence to a policy,” he said. The comptroller’s office received information on over 600,000 transactions from the CSCU financial system, and another 180,000 transactions from system leaders’ state credit cards, Scanlon said. For the audit, his office reviewed a sample of roughly 1,000 of those transactions “for the sake of time” and public interest in the matter, he said. In response to the comptroller’s report, system chancellor Cheng said in a statement that the university system is “reviewing the recommendations and findings from the Comptroller’s Office and are committed to implementing stronger controls, policies, and comprehensive training.” “These recommendations will support the goal of accountability and transparency across the system and protect taxpayer dollars and student funds,” Cheng said. “The system has begun to take steps in this direction and over the next 100 days, I’ve instructed my team to implement recommendations to improve compliance and reporting.” According to the report, Cheng spent over $27,000 on his state-issued credit card over a three-year period from July 1, 2021 through Oct. 24, 2024. The majority of those expenses were spent on meals, totaling about $19,000, the report said. During that period, Cheng purchased alcohol, several meals over a $50 limit and tipped over 22%, which is considered “excessive,” Scanlon said. Cheng also used taxpayer money to hire a car service three times, despite having a state vehicle at the time, according to the report. Cheng lives in Salem, N.Y., and commutes roughly 90 minutes to Hartford. Scanlon said Cheng “technically did not violate” any spending policies because the way they’re written allows the chancellor to “override the policy at his own discretion.” “In the absence of these sound and comprehensive policies, the chancellor certainly utilized poor judgment when making P-Card purchases that were troubling, given the financial stress that the system he oversees is currently under and has been under for some time now,” Scanlon said, referring most recently to a $140 million deficit the CSCU system had to mitigate this fiscal year. Republican lawmakers called for the termination of Cheng’s employment and said the misspending “is a black eye for the state of Connecticut.” “Restoring public trust demands bold and decisive action, that begins with terminating the employment of CSCU Chancellor Terrence Cheng. His continued leadership over a system in clear disarray undermines efforts to restore stability and confidence among students, parents, staff, and taxpayers alike,” said Republican Minority Leaders Sen. Stephen Harding and Rep. Vincent Candelora in a joint statement. In addition to Cheng’s spending, the audit found that the president of Charter Oak State College, one of the schools in the CSCU system, “charged half a million dollars on his credit card over the course of several different transactions for marketing money.” Scanlon said the charge was “not nefarious” but “certainly a violation of state policy to put that much money on a credit card for something like marketing.” The report also highlighted concerns about Southern Connecticut State University’s interim president Dwayne Smith, who spent “almost double what Chancellor Chang spent, in a lesser period of time” for services including car washes and dry cleaning, as well as a ticket to a Yale University football game and other items. “Each one of the university presidents during the period we looked at, with the exception of the new president of Eastern, was using their P-Card for things that were a violation of state policy. Staff members at each of those institutions were also using P-Cards in a violation of state policy,” Scanlon said. “Across the spectrum of all these things, there was bad judgment and poor judgment, but another problem — and that bigger problem from our perspective — is the lack of clear policies and procedures,” he said. Scanlon’s team recommended several policy reforms which included: Reinstituting an internal audit function Establishing a centralized P-Card policy with review procedures and accountability measures for misuse A recommendation to use foundation funds — money contributed by donors — for meals and entertainment Establishing a vehicle use policy Establishing a residency requirement for executives Adding CSCU to OpenConnecticut, a publicly-available online database of government financial reporting Submitting transactions to the comptroller’s office for a post-audit Providing consistent training Scanlon said further action, including whether to continue the investigation, is up to the governor and state lawmakers. Harding and Candelora said they would support an extended investigation. “The troubling transactions revealed in today’s report may well be just the tip of the iceberg, emphasizing the critical need to extend the audit process and fully expose how this system has been mismanaged,” the two Republican lawmakers wrote. “Failing to act decisively not only excuses unacceptable behavior but also risks eroding trust in all our public institutions.” Co-chairs of the Legislature’s higher education committee, Sen. Derek Slap and Rep. Gregg Haddad, both Democrats, said they will pursue “proposals this session to improve accountability within the CSCU system.” In an emailed statement, the pair said they would consider “further action as more information comes to light.” The General Assembly’s 2025 session begins Jan. 8.