A second education official has been placed on a leave of absence while the findings of an audit are investigated.

Clay Christensen, president of the Mountainland Applied Technology College, is on a paid leave of absence, according to a statement released late Friday. Rob Brems, president of the Utah College of Applied Technology and the former president of MATC, was placed on a paid leave of absence earlier this week.

Both actions were triggered by a yet-to-be-released audit of MATC that found "significant deficiencies in the management of funds and policies" at the school, according to a statement from the state board of regents.

Jared Haines, acting UCAT president, did not return phone calls seeking comment Friday. It was his decision to place Christensen on leave.

Brems is named specifically in the audit findings, according to the board of regents statement. The announcement about Christensen's status did not say whether his name turned up in the audit as well.

MATC spokesman Mark Middlebrook said he's "still in the dark" about some of the audit's findings. Other findings, though, are old recommendations that the school has already addressed, he said.

"Why these are being brought out again, I just don't understand," he said. "We are aware of some of our deficiencies as identified, and we are doing our due diligence in correcting those.

"There's no money missing. It was a mishandling of how things are transferred. It's just errors in the paperwork."

Those kinds of problems were documented in an earlier audit of MATC's 2006 financial statements that was released in March.

The duties of employees handling cash and check transactions weren't adequately separated, which opened the possibility of a misappropriation of funds to go undetected. That audit did not say that money had gone missing.

The college also didn't follow its credit card policies, according to that audit:

Four purchases more than $300 did not have documentation that bids were obtained, which school policy requires;

Two computer purchases were "split" to avoid exceeding the dollar limit on the card;

There were "numerous" credit card purchases of food, meals, travel and construction, all of which are specifically prohibited by college policy.

MATC vice president Fred Keetch is acting president while Christensen is on leave.

The day-to-day operations of the school aren't being affected, Middlebrook added, and classes will start Aug. 20 as scheduled.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D1.