The state of Florida’s Board of Governors is questioning Florida A&M University’s (FAMU) Chief Financial Officer Rebecca Brown’s performance after red flags were raised surrounding a recent financial audit, Tallahassee Democrat reports.
A report submitted by the HBCU to the Florida Board of Governors’ audit and compliance committee obtained updates corresponding to findings in the auditor general’s March 2025 reports for the fiscal year ending in June 2024. Several red flags were raised within the report, including a delay in bank reconciliations, which compares cash records with bank statements in an effort to ensure accurate financial recordings, and vendor payment delays.
There were also concerns over internal controls and accounting practices being labeled as weak, in addition to limited staff involvement.
With all arrows pointing to Brown, board member and chair of the committee, Aubrey Edge feels Brown has been at the job too long to make such vivid mistakes. “From my perspective, the CFO failed pretty miserably in this job because she’s been there two years and five months, which is long enough to know that you’re not reconciling your statements,” Edge said.Brown was absent from the June 18 meeting held on Florida Atlantic University’s campus. However, a number of FAMU leaders were there and put forth an effort to defend the CFO, with Vice President for Audit Credentials Joseph Maleszewski blaming the turnover of financial control. “We’ve had instability in leadership, and the turnover has changed the staffing in those functions as well,” the VP said, according to CFO
.The Tallahassee-based HBCU has been negatively trending for weeks following the board’s decision to confirm Marva Johnson as FAMU’s 13th president. The decision was met with massive backlash from current and incoming students, in addition to recent and seasoned alumni.
But the board said it’s more than just leadership, turnover, and Brown. With Edge labeling the financial issue as “systemic,” member Eric Silagy echoed the sentiments and pointed the finger at FAMU’s oversight culture, saying such issues mimic those that may be done in the private sector. “For a chief financial officer to have this systemic breakdown and this loss of risk controls, they would be shown the door so fast it would make their head spin,” Silagy said.
“I personally wouldn’t have confidence in the team you have, and I would ask you to really take a hard look at what signals you’re sending to folks internally so that they understand the gravity of what they’re doing or not doing.”
Edge highlighted how the board started tracking over 30 discrepancies and actions at the home of the Rattlers starting in 2013 to address internal issues. He continued to express how some of the same problems from more than 10 years ago were still an issue within the most recent audits. However, to lighten the load, FAMU’s interim President Timothy Beard stepped in to reassure that the university’s bank transactions were being reconciled and reviewed.
“When I came in, certainly, I could sense some things that needed to be done,” Beard said. “I immediately started working with our VP (Brown) pretty much weekly to look at some corrective actions.” But with the bills being paid on time being an issue for the board, Beard revealed that “significant strides” have been made since 2024, but admitted to work still needing to be done with a corrective action plan put in place in an effort to resolve them.
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