Higher Education Commissioner Richard Kendell placed Brems on leave after a draft audit found problems in the management of funds and policies at the Mountainland Applied Technology College.

"[The findings have] nothing to do with fraud or embezzlement or theft. [The findings] have to do with the mishandling of transactions," Johnson said. "We can account for all the dollars, but the question is what that money is used for and how it is used."

Amanda Covington, spokeswoman for the Utah System of Higher Education, said the Regents' decision was "the right thing to do."

While Mountainland ATC reports to Brems and the Board of Trustees that oversees the UCAT campuses, Brems reports to the Board of Regents.

"It was a good, prudent management decision based on the information they received from the audit," Covington said. "They will now be able to effectively study what's been shown in the audit."

The draft audit, which still hasn't been released to the public, cites four findings, according to Johnson.

One finding assesses "violations and circumventions" of controls at Mountainland ATC and two others focus on "interactions with President Robert Brems," Johnson said. The fourth finding was of a lesser concern, he added.

He conducted the audit after an employee complained about the situation.

Johnson said the Board of Regents' decision to place Brems on paid administrative leave was "jumping the gun" because the audit had not yet received comments back from the Board of Directors at Mountainland ATC.

Those comments are due back Tuesday and the directors will make their deadline, according to Mountainland ATC spokesman Mark Middlebrook.

The audit will not affect the school's opening date of Aug. 20, when the school will teach nearly 10,000 students at various campuses in Utah County.

Middlebrook said some of the findings in the audit are outdated, and the school already has addressed many of the concerns.

"We're going to make some changes based on the new findings. We'll adjust to what the auditors asked us to do and follow their recommendations," he said. "They'll learn from this and we'll become a better college because of it."

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* SHEENA MCFARLAND can be contacted at smcfarland@sltrib.com or 801-257-8619.