A new audit of Chicago State University found "significant deficiencies,'' including millions of dollars in improper no-bid contracts, an employee who was wrongly awarded a $250,000 contract and thousands of dollars in charges to a university credit card that weren't backed up with receipts.

The audit released Thursday by Illinois Auditor General William Holland found that nearly $4.5 million of expenditures through federal programs run at the school showed no evidence of competitive bidding, as required by law, and found that the school paid more than $76,000 too much for at least one item bought this way.

The audit found poor internal control procedures over a number of areas, including inventories of university property. A $900 laptop lent to a student, for example, could not be found.

And the report also said that CSU president Elnora Daniel and a consultant should not have charged $1,038 to the school for lodging and meals while in Amsterdam. Daniel and a consultant were delayed there while waiting for a visa, but the auditor's office said the visa should have been secured ahead of time.

"The cause of the delay resulting in additional expenses was not reasonable and could have been foreseen by the traveler,'' the report stated.

In all, the audit listed a total of 17 problem areas at the South Side school.

Daniel, who is stepping down this summer as president after her contract was not renewed, declined to comment on the audit's findings, which comes a year after the Auditor General found a host of other problems, including improper charges to Daniel's university credit card.

Richard Parker, CSU's interim vice president for administration, finance and facilities, admitted the audit found some "embarrassing'' mistakes. But he said the findings largely cover a period of time -- July 2006 through July 2007 -- before many changes at the school went into effect.

"The school has really done a great deal of work to shore up its procedures,'' said Parker, an outside consultant who wasn't with the school during the period audited and whose contract with the school ended Thursday. "We have taken this extremely seriously, not just to look good but to do our business better.''

Parker also said -- as other university officials have said in the past -- that staff cutbacks and high staff turnover contributed to many of the problems.

But State Sen. Ed Maloney (D-Chicago), chair of the senate's higher education committee and a CSU graduate, said the audit uncovered "pretty serious stuff'' and said blaming staff turnover "is not a good an excuse when you are dealing with that kind of money.''

The audit covering fiscal year 2007 again questioned charges made by Daniel on a university credit card, including more than $1,600 in meals and entertainment that were submitted without documentation indicating a business purpose. The audit also found nearly $1,500 in airline tickets that weren't documented and $207 spent on items for the president's house that didn't include receipts.

Last summer, Daniel reimbursed the school $8,650 for charges made to her card "in error,'' including personal expenses and other times when receipts couldn't be found.

After the auditor raised concerns this time, the school provided some justification for the expenses, but the auditor said the bills shouldn't have been paid before the documentation was submitted. Unlike last year, however, Daniel has no plans to reimburse the school for any of the charges because they were all proper, a source said.

Officials did agree to review all future credit card expenditures twice.

Of the contracts not sent to bid, $251,000 from a federal grant went to purchase copiers from a company owned by an employee, Michael Vernon Warren, who "failed to disclose any conflicts of interest,'' the audit said. When the school discovered what happened, Parker said, the employee was fired and the school repaid the federal government. Warren could not be reached for comment.

The case has been referred to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's Office. A Madigan spokeswoman said the office would review the results of the audit.

However, Warren wasn't the only staff member to do business with the school. An adjunct faculty member was paid $12,000 for a consulting contract on an incarceration study after he had become a full-time faculty member, the audit said. Conflict of interest disclosure forms were not included in 24 out of 25 contracts checked by the auditor general.

Other expenditures of federal grants weren't sent to bid, including one for the U.S. Agency for International Development, in which the school later found it could have made one purchase for $77,000 less.

The audit also lists four additional contracts for more than $250,000, each purchased through federal grants, that weren't sent to the Board of Trustees for approval.

In addition to the missing laptop, the school had problems keeping tabs on other school property. Three purchases of equipment and furniture worth $367,000 were "not properly recorded or tracked,'' the audit said.

Parker said that improper handling of federal contracts was done out of "ignorance.''

"There was a widespread belief that purchasing for grants did not require the normal process,'' he said. "It's been determined now that's not correct.''

Several calls to trustees were not returned Wednesday and Thursday. Board member Rev. Richard Tolliver declined to comment on the audit but said he was focused on the search for a new president.

Maloney said the new president's priority "is going to be to clean house as far as the financial procedures. I don't know if it's carelessness or arrogance. . . .It sure seems like a change of administration is needed to deal with these things.''