How did $40m of fraudulent spending go unchecked for literally years? It seems to be that even at the largest private sector organizations this kind of malfeasance would have been caught much sooner.
It's not like it's Choate or Groton or St. George's highschool, where tuition and gifts need to cover expenses (and are still tax-free).
True in only the most reductive and naive sense; but this is the sort of mistake that ostensibly private orgs like the ones above count on, in order to avoid the kind of scrutiny & accountability that an explicitly public agency must endure.
I witnessed large sums being spent for very dubious reasons in private firms, mainly in order to meet ridiculous demands by executives. Show-off features despite no interest from customers, "visionary product" e.g. implementing a blockchain or "artificial intelligence" that classic algorithms could do as well for much cheaper.
The idea that private entities pay more attention to money than public entities is a prejudice. At least in modern developed democracies.
Financial scandals in private firms tend to be muted in order to preserve the external reputation: hence the impression that public entities are less careful.
It's all the same everywhere, no general rule in that matter.
Yale is far from an outlier.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/business/facebook-google-...
"tried"