This could be the one thing that will never ever get protested at UC Berkeley.

Elizabeth Harrington of the Washington Free Beacon reports.

UC Berkeley Misused $1.8 Million in Taxpayer Funding

The University of California, Berkeley, misused nearly $2 million in taxpayer funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) on unallowable salaries for researchers and alcohol purchases.

According to an audit by the NSF Office of Inspector General (OIG), the university “did not always comply with applicable Federal and NSF award requirements.”

“The auditors questioned $1,863,351 of costs claimed on 97 NSF awards,” the OIG said. “Specifically, the auditors noted $1,608,944 in senior personnel salary that exceeded NSF’s two-month limit; in unreasonable equipment charges; in unallowable transactions; $15,451 in unallowable meal expenditures; $9,904 in unreasonable travel; $6,997 in unsupportable and unallocable immigration fees; and $3,891 in purchases before the award effective date.”

NSF policy limits the amount of its grants that can be spent on a senior researcher’s salary to two months out of the year. The agency considers research to be “one of the normal functions” of a university staff member’s profession, and believes that the University itself should therefore pay for it.

However, the audit found that UC Berkeley repeatedly used NSF funding for researchers salaries beyond the two-month limit. In three instances, $227,267 in salary was paid for more than five months.