Carolina Performing Arts' ticket revenue inspected by SBI

Carolina Performing Arts officials never expected a scandal.

But the organization that has brought the likes of Bela Fleck and Yo-Yo Ma to UNC is under the scrutiny of the State Bureau of Investigation for mishandling ticket revenue.

The Business Office of CPA is unable to account for $123,500 in ticket revenue from between 2007 and 2011, according to an internal university audit.

“It was a big surprise,” said Mark Nelson, CPA’s director of marketing.

“I certainly wish that it had been discovered earlier, but it was discovered, we reported and called for the audit, and the folks who were in that area are no longer working for Carolina Performing Arts.”

Emil Kang, UNC’s executive director for the arts, requested the audit after CPA staff noticed irregularities in the books. UNC’s Internal Audit Department and Department of Public Safety have since investigated.

Randy Young, spokesman for DPS, could not comment on details of the case.

“Our investigation did not produce a definitive suspect, so probable cause couldn’t be established,” Young said.

He said the SBI has since taken over the ongoing investigation. A representative from the SBI was unavailable for comment.

Nelson said CPA officials became aware of the financial discrepancy in January 2011, when the office’s business manager and accounting technician were replaced.

The audit, released Friday to The Daily Tar Heel, states that prior to January 2011, one unnamed employee was responsible for making and recording deposits, a practice opposing “good internal control practices.”

Nelson said that since the completion of the audit, CPA’s business operations have met the Internal Audit Department’s standards, following a “three-way match” system that requires comparison among box office ticket sales, deposit records and system entries.

Nelson said the discovery has not had a major impact on CPA’s budget or potential programming.

CPA operates on a year-to-year budget, which was $3.5 million in 2005 at the organization’s establishment and has increased to $6 million for the 2012-13 season.

Nelson said the missing $123,500, the loss of which spans four years, at times only represented 2 or 3 percent of CPA’s annual revenue.

“Those years have come and gone, and since it was money that we never recorded, we never technically had it to work with,” Nelson said.

“The immediate impact on our budget wasn’t as severe as it could have been.”

Contact the desk editor at arts@dailytarheel.com.