When people don’t pick up their checks at Alabama businesses, banks, government agencies or nonprofits, and some time goes by, state law requires sending the money electronically to the state treasurer.

That requirement includes colleges that may be sitting on checks to students, faculty and vendors. State auditors, however, said Alabama A&M University wasn’t doing it in its most recent audit.

A partial review found more than 250 payroll and other kinds of unspecified checks amounting to more than $110,000 in unclaimed funds at the institution, according to the latest audit report released in July 2023, covering the 2020 to 2022 financial years.

This violates state law that requires payroll checks uncollected for over one year and other checks more than three years old be sent to the state, which would then attempt to contact owners.

It is unclear how many people have uncollected checks at the college because auditors only reviewed a sample and provided no additional details.

After AL.com asked for comments, the school didn’t explain what happened to the money after the checks remained uncollected for a long time. It only provided a statement by Carlton Spellman, the vice president for business and finance, that it is addressing issues raised in the report.

“We are aware of the findings from 2020 and 2021 which occurred during the previous administration,” Spellman said in the statement. “We have made various corrections and are confident that we are moving in the right direction.”

Auditors said the school lacked a policy for reviewing outstanding checks each year to determine reportable unclaimed property.

“Since the University did not review the outstanding checks, it could not be determined whether all or some of the checks should have been remitted as unclaimed property,” they said.

Bidding issue

A&M might also have violated a state law requiring services costing more than $15,000 to go through a bidding process.

“During the examination period, the Winfred Thomas Agricultural Research Station (“Research Station”) allowed a company to haul grain to be sold without a contract,” the report said.

“The company would obtain payment from the buyer of the grain in the form of a check. The company would then write a check to the Research Station for the amount of the payment less the cost of hauling the grain to the buyer.”

The audit report also identified other accounting issues, including not matching sports ticketing sales with revenue generated. The athletics director said this has been resolved with adequate checks and balances and that a cashless policy will be implemented beginning this fall.