Val Tech undergoes review by DTAE

By Rabyn Ratliff
The Valdosta Daily Times

October 25, 2007 01:15 am

— VALDOSTA — The Department of Technical and Adult Education is completing a management assessment of Valdosta Technical College, in efforts to ensure the college is operating at full capacity and meeting the needs of the local community.
According to Mike Light, DTAE executive director of communications, a review team was sent to Val Tech from the Atlanta offices on Oct. 9, to conduct an investigation of the college’s administrative operations, since new President, Dr. Robert Abene, took over managerial operations.
“Commissioner Jackson of the DTAE asked president Abene to remove himself from the campus while staff of the Atlanta DTAE headquarters are conducting a management assessment on the campus,” said Light. “The team is investigating the internal function/operation and relations of Val Tech, just to make sure the college is operating at maximum efficiency and totally responsive to the community.”
The DTAE review is intended to assess the efficiency of Abene’s administrative direction, who is still working to become acclimated to the college and local community, after moving to Valdosta in December of last year.
“Those familiar with the college are familiar with Dr. James Bridges, the long-time president who built Val Tech into the college it is today, and often times, when someone follows in those type of footsteps — which are very big steps to fill — we follow up to ensure that the college is being operated at its full capacity,” said Light. “The way each of our colleges serves its community and its relationship to that community is essential to our purpose. We don’t conduct this type of assessment often, but if we feel the need to, we do so. We are constantly monitoring our colleges, talking to folks on campus and off campus, and people have invested interest externally and internally, and their concerns may prompt such an assessment.”
Light anticipates the management assessment of Val Tech to be complete in a couple of weeks, and from there, recommendations will be made according to the findings of the report. Meanwhile, he assures the local community that this assessment imposes no threat to Val Tech’s status and reputation for providing quality technical education and service to the community.
“This is a management assessment, and in no way are we calling it a question of service and quality of education,” said Light. “Once it is complete and we have a positive or negative assessment (a negative assessment would be one revealing faults within management) we will deal with it dependent upon the level of the problem.”
In an unrelated assessment issue, questions have been raised regarding purchases made on Dr. Abene’s state-issued credit card, following a mandatory audit of all state agencies and their credit card purchases.
“The misuse of state-issued credit cards begin with an audit of a couple of University System Colleges, and as a result, all state agencies were ordered to review their personal card uses and report the state,” said Light. “As a whole, our technical colleges were fine, but as part of that review, Val Tech noticed what seemed to be some fraudulent purchases.”
According to Light, SI Credit Cards are available to state agencies for the purchase of office materials and related equipment. In a report released Wednesday by the Savannah Morning News, review of Abene’s SI Credit Card purchases revealed a number of questionable purchases, while the card was reportedly misplaced.
With questions of a third party card user, the issue was turned over to local authorities.
“It seems to be third party issue, where someone has gotten the card and made purchases,” said Light. “Because of these circumstances, we turned this over to local authorities, who are investigating the issue. This matter, however, is not related to the management assessment we are conducting.”