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The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and East Carolina University have reached a settlement with the Department of Justice after a federal investigation found the universities falsified volunteer hours for AmeriCorps members.
Between 2014 and 2019, the universities “engaged in widespread violations of grant requirements, acted with reckless disregard in causing false claims, failed to maintain proper internal controls and systematically certified false hours for AmeriCorps Members,” said the Justice Department. UNC and ECU allegedly only took seconds to approve hours that falsely claimed to be worked on holidays and weekends as well as excessive hours claimed toward the end of the academic year. In some instances, the universities certified 16-hour days -- beyond what was available for service site hours on weekdays, the investigation found.
The actions by UNC and ECU led to a misuse of grant funds provided by AmeriCorps, ultimately harming their programs, the department said.
Both universities deny the allegations made by the Justice Department, but UNC agreed to pay $375,000 and ECU agreed to pay $140,000 to the United States to settle the claims.
