Let's just take a quick look at the Registry of Contracts for a moment, which is required to be made public under the GIPA act. I've attached my personal highlighted copy.

-The vast majority (which I highlighted yellow) explicitly have something in the name indicating its a company like "LTD" or "PTY" or "LLC" etc. These are all probably legit.

-There's about a dozen or so (which I highlighted orange) that don't explicitly have a word in the name indicating its a company, but they are clearly company names not people names and the descriptions of the services look legit.

-Then there's 4 of them (which I highlighted red) that appear to be the names of private individuals, and the description of the contracts ambiguously just read "agreement to acquire services". Unlike the others, these do not look legit.

Looking at the details of these four specific contracts, they all appear to be payments to individuals living in India for amounts around $300,000 (+- $50,000). The addresses are clearly private residences. I've attached copies.

Can anyone here tell me why the university sent a bit over a million dollars in total to a clique of private individuals overseas while structuring the payment as 4 completely unspecified "service contracts" awarded in rapid succession? What could they possibly be doing that's worth that much to the university from all the way in India? And why have the details about these suspicious contracts since been redacted when I go to look at them now? (thank god I saved copies).

I think we can all guess the answer here, but let me put it to you in musical form.

I have a lot more "quick questions" for this institution, in case anyone wants to hear them.

Raise your hand if you're on the Finance and Facilities or Audit and Risk committee.

Now raise your hand if you're a Public Interest Disclosures officer.

If both your hands are raised, clap them together for me.

Thank you for the round of applause.