University Daily Kansan, April 8, 1983
Page 7
Negotiations to begin on Med Center errors
Negotiations between the federal government and the University of Kansas Medical Center regarding the master's $100,000 worth of account mistakes will begin within the next two or three weeks, officials said yesterday.
Michael Keeble, controller for the Med Center, said the negotiations stem from the Department of Health and Human Services' audit showing that the Med Center overcharged the federal government $166,246.
HE SAID HE had received a copy of the audit this week, but would not speculate whether the Med Center would pay the overcharges.
The results of the audit, released last week, showed that the Med Center made $113,843 in profit by improper recording expenditures of government grants. The issue involves computer stores and storeroom and mallroom costs.
The government also alleges that the Med Center charged $52,402 in patient-care costs which were not subject to reimbursement.
The Med Center might owe one $142,462 in patient-care costs and $24,584 of a National Institute of Health contract. Yet the validity of the overcharges have not been determined because of inadequate documentation.
THE AUDIT ALSO found fault with the Med Center's property records and allocation of payroll expenses to various accounts, and recommended that the Med Center improve process for managing federal research contract requirements.
Keith Nilcher, KU director of business affairs, said he did not know whether the Med Center will pay the sum to the government, but did say that the Med Center's accounting procedures should be revised.
He said the Med Center's calculations of various accounts could be wrong, but that the Med Center did not overcharge the government.
The miscalculated accounts span five years, ending in June 1981, he said.
"OF COURSE we're concerned," he said. "But if you divide the sum by five, the amount for each year isn't that great."
Grad attempts to untangle deregulation
By DIANE LUBER
Staff Reporter
Only a few people found the issue of natural gas deregulation interesting enough to spend their lunch hour digesting it yesterday.
But William Silvey, a KU graduate who spoke to the handful of people in a meeting room in Blake Hall, has found the issue so interesting that he's spent the last five years in the U.S. Department of Energy analyzing it.
"It's fun." Silvey said.
HE ENJOYS being in the middle of something important, he says. He has brought several people into the department who could have earned higher pay in the private sector. He said the department was doing a good work that the department was doing.
Silvey, who received his masters degree in public administration from the University of Kansas in 1973, is now a senior fellow at the Office of Policy Planning and Analysis.
Although he is not a political appointee and is therefore not required to keep the public abreast of his work, he will be present in various places once or twice a month in
But natural gas deregulation is so complicated, he said, that many people
Washington, D.C., and would like to do it more often.
USING CHARTS and graphs, Silvery traced natural gas costs from the wellhead to the consumer and natural gas prices from 1973 to 1983.
The Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978 created 28 categories of natural gas, he
Although different kinds of oil carry different price tags, he said, there is no physical reason to price natural gas at different rates.
"Natural gas is not like oil," he said.
"It only comes in one flavor."
Silvey said that under President Reagan's proposed natural gas deregulation plan, the market would eventually set one price for natural gas.
“WHAT WE’RE trying to do is move to the free market,” he said. “We want competition between gas and oil. Now we’re making a big effort at gas prices are held artificially high.”
He called Reagan's proposal a "double-barrelled shotgun at the heads of both natural gas producers and renewable gas contractors and prices.
The president's plan would strengthen the position of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, he said.
"The proposal gives them much more in the way of teeth to enforce laws."
After talking for 30 minutes, Silvey turned to his audience and said, "I can see your eyes are beginning to glaze over. I am going to see the complexity of the issue."
IT'S SO COMPLEX that most people rely on someone to represent them instead of trying to understand the issue themselves, he said.
He said that he thought the Citizen Labor Energy Coalition, a consumer advocate organization, was shorted in its approach to energy issues.
It pushes for the lowest price for energy but doesn't look into the future to see what effect the lowest possible prices might have, he said.
He praised the efforts of Kansas' Republican Sen. Nancy Kaebaum and Democratic Rep. Jim Slattery to understand natural gas deregulation and to represent the interests of their constituents.
The secretary of the department has worked with Kassebaum and has been impressed with her openness and objectivity, he said.
SILVEY SAID he had worked with Slattery, who is on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
"Slattery is caught between a rock and a hard place," he said. He must represent the interests of both the consumers and the natural gas producers and distributors in his district, he said.
An for the state severance tax that the Legislature may pass this session, it is proposed to grant a 25%
It all depends upon whether the price of the state's oil and gas will remain competitive after the severance tax is added on, he said.
"THERE'S A GOOD chance that 'will,' he said.
But he was critical of Gov. John Carlin's proposal to freeze the price of natural gas produced and sold within the state, he said, because most natural gas producers would be unwilling to sell at low prices.
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"The economics of this thing is extremely hard to explain," he said.
After his talk, Silvey fielded questions from the group.
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