Documents: UNC system president didn’t report board seats

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The interim president of North Carolina’s public university system didn’t disclose on required annual public statements that he was also paid by major corporations doing business with the state, but a top university leader said Wednesday he knew about the arrangements.

William Roper failed to disclose on four of his annual statements of economic interest between 2011 and 2019 that he served on the boards of dialysis services company DaVita Inc. and a pharmacy benefits administrator now part of health insurer Cigna while also serving on the UNC Health Care System board, WBTV reported . Roper did disclose income from his board seats in 2017.

“The purpose of a statement of economic interest is to put both the public and the public body on notice that there are issues around which the individual may not be able to participate,” said Josh Lawson, formerly the top attorney at the state agency responsible for enforcing the state’s ethics act.

State law prohibits public servants from using their positions for their financial benefit or for the benefit of their extended family or business. It is a misdemeanor to knowingly withhold material information from one of the statements and a felony to knowingly make a false statement.

Records show Roper made around $5 million from his board positions.

Roper made a base salary of more than $800,000 as CEO of the UNC Health Care System - the state-owned, not-for-profit hospital system and physicians network - between 2004 and 2019. Roper is being paid a base salary of $775,000 as interim president of the UNC System.

Roper corrected his economic interest statements after WBTV questioned him.

Roper didn’t explain why he had omitted information about his outside work in his statements. He said he had disclosed his positions with DaVita and the Cigna-acquired company Express Scripts on his professional resume, his official biography while heading the UNC-Chapel Hill medical school and UNC Health Care, and the companies reporting his role in securities filings.

“I have always recused myself from any matters before UNC Health Care, the UNC School of Medicine or the UNC System that might pose a conflict or the appearance of a conflict of interest related to my service with these outside entities,” Roper said in an email last week to members of the university system’s governing board.

He sent that email last week a day after a review by the current State Ethics Commission that found the potential for a conflict of interest, but no actual conflict and no reason Roper couldn’t continue serving as interim president.

Harry Smith, chairman of the University of North Carolina’s governing board, said Wednesday that Roper’s corporate work was known to the system’s leaders when they picked Roper in January to take over for departing UNC president Margaret Spellings.

“We have reviewed this matter and we are aware of no instance in which Dr. Roper ever involved himself in a decision that presented a conflict,” Smith said in a statement. “We are in full support of Dr. Roper and look forward to his continued service to the UNC System.”

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Information from: WBTV-TV, http://www.wbtv.com/