A “new matter” has delayed the results of the attorney general’s investigation into 1986 furniture purchases for the home of former NIU president Clyde Wingfield.

Phil Mueller, press aide for the attorney general’s office, said, “a new matter has been brought to our (the attorney general’s) attention” which concerns the Wingfield report. The matter is not a new charge against NIU but a new “aspect being incorporated into the original report,” he said.

As a result, the release of the findings will be delayed, Mueller said. He said he could not reveal the specifics of the “new matter” nor how it became known to the attorney general.

Upon completion, the report will be released to State Sen. Patrick Welch, D-Peru, who originally requested the Wingfield investigation. “When it (the report) is done, the attorney general’s office will turn it over to the senator, Mueller said.

Welch said he has not been told what the new aspect of the investigation might be or where it might have come from. “All I can do is speculate,” he said.

In June 1986, The Northern Star reported on remodeling expenditures for the president’s home, which led to a review by the Senate Appropriations II subcommittee, of which Welch is chairman. The attorney general was asked to investigate based on the subcommittee’s findings, Welch said.

An investigation was called due to possible violations of the Open Meetings Act and the Purchasing Act, he said. The closed-door meeting of the Illinois Board of Regents, which governs NIU, that approved spending $25,000 for the furniture could have violated the Open Meetings Act, Welch added.

In addition, the Illinois Purchasing Act states that any remodeling or renovation in excess of $5,000 must be supervised and bids be taken out, Welch said. This apparently was not done “based on the way the furniture was purchased with overall expenses in excess of $20,000,” he said.

Welch said he is not sure when he will get to see the results of the attorney general’s investigation, but is anxious to examine the findings. “I’d like to get this (the Wingfield matter) all behind us,” he said.

Kenneth Beasley, assistant to NIU President John LaTourette, said the administration has no information as to what the matter might be. The Attorney General has told LaTourette another matter has come up and it has to be dealt with before the findings of the probe are released, Beasley said. “Evidently, some questions remain,” and the attorney general wants to clear them up, he said.

As to whether a new complaint has been filed against NIU, Beasley said, “we (the administration) have not heard, nor do we know anything about, any new complaint.”

University Legal Counsel George Shur said, as NIU’s legal representative, he has not been notified as to what the additional matter of the probe might be. “If it is a charge, I am not sure whether it would be against the campus or against the Board of Regents,” he said.