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In 2005, the Department of Homeland Security announced plans to replace the old Plum Island Animal Disease Center off Long Island with a facility on the U.S. mainland to study Foot and Mouth Disease and other dangerous pathogens. Kansas won the job in 2008, with a site on the campus of Kansas State University in Manhattan.But today, more than three years later, the proposed $1.14 billion National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility faces funding obstacles, safety questions, rising costs and political fallout. For Kansas and the Midwest, the stakes couldn’t be higher.Here you’ll find coverage and updates from Harvest Public Media, KCUR and Kansas Public Media.

Interim Head Of KBA Concerned About NBAF, Investments

David Vranicar, Interim CEO of the Kansas Bioscience Authority.
David Vranicar, Interim CEO of the Kansas Bioscience Authority.

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-963708.mp3

The interim CEO of the troubled Kansas Bioscience Authority says the KBA will cooperate completely with the Governor's office in it's request for an independent audit. The Kan. legislature has been holding hearings in recent weeks.

The hearings have raised questions about spending and the allocation of $581 million in taxpayer money. Former KBA CEO Tom Thornton resigned last week amid the controversies.

The conflict, however, is sending the wrong message, according to the new head of the KBA.

David Vranicar, formerly president of the KBA's Heartland Bio Ventures, worries the public debate could jeopardize future funding for both the National Bio and Agro-Defense facility, or NBAF, and private investment.

"If the state of Kansas appears to be totally un-unified , now that would be a serious shortcoming, I think," he said. 

Vranicar says an outside auditor will examine its records.

But Sherriene Jones-Sontag, spokesman for Kan. Gov. Brownback, says the governor wants a team of observers from his Department of Agriculture to oversee the audit, as well as a separate investigation by the Kansas Attorney General. She says the governor wants an audit with no ties to the KBA to avoid the possibility of conflict of interest.

"The important part here is to make sure taxpayer funds are being used appropriately," Jones-Sontag said.

David Vranicar says the KBA needs to protect patents and confidentiality agreements from its investors. The governor's office has made no further statements about what the next steps will be.

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