Ousted 11 years ago, engineer Dennis Polla still being paid by U. of Minnesota while working fulltime elsewhere
Star Tribune
March 16, 2011
A technology engineer who was forced to resign a prominent post at the University of Minnesota 11 years ago for misappropriating research money remains on the university's payroll at $112,660 a year, despite working full time for the federal government in Maryland.
The dual employment of Dennis Polla is raising eyebrows at the State Capitol, where a deep budget crisis has put university spending under a microscope.
The U paid $812,494 in 2002 to settle a federal investigation of Polla, documents reviewed by the Star Tribune show. The university, after its own investigation, concluded that Polla misspent federal research dollars, some for the benefit of private research clients. "He improperly used U of M resources for the benefit of his private clients,'' according to the U's report.
Neither the university nor the Department of Justice found evidence that Polla embezzled.
After the investigations, the U removed Polla as head of biomedical engineering, but he quietly stayed on as a professor and manager, even after losing tenure in 2007.
"It's startling to see that he is still on the payroll and I really am questioning how he can be performing his duties when he is employed full time on the East Coast," said Senate Finance Committee Chair Claire Robling, R-Jordan.
