Legislative auditors say West Virginia University at Parkersburg has played fast and loose with the rules governing contracts with vendors.

Tuesday's report to lawmakers says the school violated the West
Virginia constitution with a 2009 contract for food services that
it failed to submit to the state's attorney general.

This contract wrongly commits the school to a $177,000 loan to vendor AVI Foodsystems. It will end up costing WVU-P nearly $236,000.

The audit also found that WVU-P has accepted nearly $60,000
worth of donations from vendors that routinely do business with the
school.

One such gift apparently resulted from a vendor cutting a bid in half in order to win a flooring contract.

A WVU-P official hired in 2010 says the school is adopting the audit's various recommendations.

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