St. Francis Hospital said Wednesday that it has delayed release of its most recent financial statement after determining that it may have over-reported financial contributions collected in recent years by its fund raising foundation.
“The delay largely stems from the fact that we are looking at pledges to the foundation that may have been improperly recorded as revenue,” said Jim Schepker, the hospital’s senior vice president for marketing.
The hospital has begun an audit to examine, among other things, money pledged and actually collected by the St. Francis Foundation and what sums were booked as revenue. Schepker said the audit is focused primarily on the hospital’s 2011 fiscal year, as well as unspecified prior periods.
The period covered by the audit coincides with the years well-known Connecticut fund-raiser Paul Pendergast ran the St. Francis Foundation, the charitable and fundraising arm of the St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center. Pendergast, president of the foundation from 2006 to 2011, declined comment when asked Wednesday about hospital fundraising and possible discrepancies in the reporting of charitable receipts.
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He is currently chief development officer for Back9Network and vice president of institutional advancement for the Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network. In the past, Pendergast held senior positions in the athletic department at the University of Connecticut. He served briefly as interim athletic director under UConn President Susan Herbst in 2011, after leaving the hospital.
Pendergast now is associated with one of the three principal groups bidding for the right to manage the XL Center in downtown Hartford and the Stadium at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, two of the region’s largest entertainment venues. The Capital Region Development authority, which operates the venues, could award a management contract as early as Thursday.
St. Francis President and CEO Christopher M. Dadlez told the hospital board last week that the ongoing-audit would delay the release of the hospital’s consolidated financial statement for fiscal 2012 at last until March.
Schepker said he did not have information about sums of money in dispute or how accounting errors were made, if any were.
“The audit is taking longer than any of us would like,” Schepker said. “These are sometimes very sophisticated, complex issues and it is the understanding of the person making the pledge the understanding of the receiving institution, that needs to be determined.”
Other sources said the hospital has examined, among other things, contributions that were pledged on a contingency basis and how those pledges were accounted for on financial statements. The sums in question could exceed $10 million, a source said.