Post Classifieds
Ponton, Christy named in audit
By Michael Canfield
On November 7, 2012
When the New York State Comptroller's Office released an audit of the SUNY Research Foundation in
October, two prominent names specific to Buffalo State were brought up in the report.
Provost Dennis Ponton was named in the audit as approving payments made to Operations Manager
and Vice President for Research Administration and Economic Development Edgar H. Turkle III that were
deemed unnecessary by the audit.
Turkle was a SUNY employee working out of Buffalo State for the Research Foundation who was fired
for racking up thousands of dollars in charges to a SUNY corporate credit card for personal items,
including groceries and Buffalo Sabres season tickets.
In the case of Ponton, the report alleges that he approved the retroactive payment of $50,000 for
extra services in an email from March 2010. While the Research Foundation allows for extra payments
for services provided in addition to those involved with the job, the comptroller's office found no
evidence that Turkle had taken on extra duties commiserate with the extra pay. The transaction was
deemed "highly questionable and potentially fraudulent" in the report.
Turkle's bump in pay came while Ponton was serving as interim president of the college, and promoted
Turkle from director of the Research Foundation to operations manager, the post held previously by
Ponton.
When asked to comment on the report, Ponton referred The Record to the school's public relations
director, which provided a statement by President Aaron Podolefsky on Ponton's role in the audit.
"When Provost Dennis Ponton was appointed interim president of Buffalo State in 2009, his duties
as provost needed to be reassigned, including his role as operations manager of the RF office at
Buffalo State," Podolefsky said in the statement. "At the time, Provost Ponton recommended-and RF
leadership in Albany approved-Mr. Turkle as campus operations manager, a position that oversees RF
expenditures. With what we know today, I'm certain a different decision would have been made."
Podolefsky goes on to say that the years of good work Ponton has done at Buffalo State make up for the
erroneous decision to promote Turkle.
"I have full confidence in Provost Ponton and know this one recommendation is not a true reflection on
the many great things he has accomplished and will continue to accomplish at Buffalo State," he said.
Benjamin Christy, dean of the school of arts and humanities, is also named in the audit concerning an
unnamed associate professor receiving $50,000 in payments from the Research Foundation to act as a
liaison between the foundation and the school of arts and humanities.
The comptroller's office found no documentation showing what the professor had done to receive the
stipend, and no official documentation approving it.
In an email provided to the comptroller's office dated two years after the payments were made, and
after the payments were questioned, Christy asserted that he and Turkle had "discussed and supported"
the professor's role as a liaison.
When contacted for comment on the audit, Christy also referred The Record to the school's public
relations department.
Podolefsky's statement also addressed Christy's mention in the audit.
"The audit certainly revealed a need for campus oversight of RF operations and expenditures," he
said. "Last winter, senior administrators from Buffalo State's finance and management staff assumed
direct management and supervision of the RF operation at Buffalo State. We are committed to
addressing this matter in an effective, proactive way as we move forward with measures to ensure that
established policies and procedures are followed in the RF campus office."
A final decision as to preventing future misuse of funds will not be made until Podolefsky, Vice President
of Finance and Management Michael LeVine and Ponton are able to discuss how to efficiently monitor
the Research Foundation at Buffalo State.
"My staff has taken over the operation temporarily, but a final decision on how it's going to be
structured and who it's going to report to hasn't been made," LeVine said.
During the audit, and after realizing what happened, the campus decided to put the Research
Foundation under the oversight of the comptroller, he said.
"I think there needs to be oversight by finance and management to some extent of the research
operation," LeVine said. "It's really a question of how far that goes. In order to prevent the kind of
problems that happened you need independent oversight, and that's what I would be pushing for."
Oversight of the Research Foundation, however, is only "one piece of the operation," according to
LeVine.
"I think the discussions between myself, the president, and the provost will be about what the best way
is to structure the organization to increase research on the campus," said Levine.
Neither Ponton nor Christy will be disciplined by the college, Dahlgren said.
Michael Canfield can be reached by email at canfield.record@live.com.
Katie Anderson contributed to this report.
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