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Light of Life board orders audit; Agency's director on leave
Wednesday, July 25, 2001 By Steve Levin, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Duane Gartland, who built Light of Life Ministries into a multimillion-dollar agency for the homeless and needy, has been placed on paid administrative leave while the mission's financial management is investigated.
The mission's board of directors took the action against Gartland, Light of Life's longtime executive director, during an emergency meeting Monday night. The board also decided that Gartland's brother, Dean, the mission's associate executive director, will serve as interim executive director.
Board President Tunch Ilkin said in a statement yesterday that an outside consultant and an auditor with Maher Duessel would investigate issues the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and KDKA-TV raised last week.
The joint PG/KD investigation found inadequate program oversight, inflated meal distribution numbers and a pattern of employees being dismissed for questioning fiscal practices. In addition, two former upper-level managers alleged that the mission's management was so poor that it faced a $500,000 deficit by the end of September.
Ilkin also said the board would cooperate with an investigation by Pennsylvania Attorney General Mike Fisher and an audit review by Allegheny County Controller Dan Onorato.
Ilkin said the board expected a report by Oct. 1 from management consultant Olan Hendrix and Linda Jakubec, a Maher Duessel accountant.
"We want to make sure that everyone knows that we have nothing to hide," Ilkin said.
The board's primary concern, Ilkin said, was Gartland's health. Gartland, 53, and a 30-year employee of Light of Life, underwent quadruple bypass surgery in 1998.
"We think it's also best for the ministry that he go on administrative leave while we continue this process," Ilkin said. "We don't want to put any undue stress on Duane."
Gartland declined comment yesterday.
Ilkin, a former Steelers lineman, said 11 of the board's 12 members met Monday night with Hendrix, a well-known management consultant for Christian organizations.
The board meeting originally had been scheduled for yesterday.
Ilkin said the Light of Life board had not been "blind-sided" by the allegations of mismanagement raised by the Post-Gazette and KDKA-TV. In fact, he said, "We've been doing these internal checks and balances over the last year."
He pointed to the hiring last summer of the Ohio-based Hendrix as proof that the mission was sincere in its self-examination.
"Our concern is to our donors, to our prayer partners, to our volunteers, to our clients and to our staff," Ilkin said. "We don't want a shadow hanging over the mission."
Jerry Wrzosek, fired in June as the mission's director of development and coordinator of volunteer services, and controller Bobby Burke, who resigned July 12, have said the mission could face a deficit of $508,000 by the end of September.
Their findings follow a February warning to Light of Life from Maher Duessel, the mission's Downtown accounting firm.
The firm's review of the mission's finances for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2000, said that "without proper internal control, Light of Life cannot ensure that all revenue that is received/earned is recorded, all revenue that is earned is billed and that assets are safeguarded from misappropriation."
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