North Dakota University System has placed its chief compliance officer and chief auditor on administrative leave, pending termination.

According to North Dakota University System (NDUS), Chief Auditor Timothy Carlson allegedly lied about his work history when applying for the job, and Chief Compliance Officer Kirsten Franzen allegedly failed to establish a compliance program since being hired last year.

A scathing letter issued to Franzen by Chief of Staff Murray Sagsveen lists a number of other reasons for her leave, including:

Failure to set fraud awareness training. Each employee is required to complete fraud awareness training each year. "Following consultation with the Human Resource Council, and with the concurrence of the Chancellor and me, the training completion deadline was changed from June 30 to Dec. 31 to better coincide with the start of the academic year," Sagsveen wrote. "This project was assigned to you and, notwithstanding repeated requests, you have failed to set up this required training.”

Failure to establish trust with colleagues and clients. “The Chancellor has advised he does not trust you. I do not trust you. At least one president has advised that he did not want you on his campus during a visit by Department of Education Office of Civil Rights personnel," Sagsveen wrote.

Refusal to implement preventative compliance measures. “The Chancellor and I agree that the ‘best practice’ for the NDUS compliance program should be training to inform NDUS personnel about key compliance issues in order to prevent inadvertent or unintentional non-compliance," Sagsveen wrote. "However, you have stated to me (and others) that I do not ‘understand' compliance. I do understand that the NDUS has very limited resources for a viable compliance program, so the emphasis must be training and auditing.”

In the letter, Sagsveen goes on to list other reasons for Franzen’s leave, including unprofessional conduct and making “misleading and inappropriate” statements to the audit committee. “It is my conclusion that your failure to implement a viable compliance program and your recent conduct requires that I service you with this notice of intent to dismiss with cause.”

According to her LinkedIn page, Franzen has served as chief compliance officer with NDUS since November 2012. She has until Nov. 17 to submit documentation and request a review.

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