The case was turned over to the Administrative Board, members said.

Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III said in an interview Monday that he could not discuss the matter.

"If there were an allegation we could not talk about it publicly, but, of course, if there were such an allegation we would take it very seriously," Epps said.

Virginia L. Mackay-Smith '78, secretary to the Administrative Board, also declined to comment.

Group members and students familiar with the incident said that when the Kroks discovered the cash shortfall in the spring, they called on longtime sponsors of the group to help contribute to make up the difference.

MIT Professor John Donovan, a longtime Krok sponsor who hires the group to entertain clients nearly every week, gave the group an advance payment to make certain the singers could still keep most of their tour engagements, students said.

Donovan was out of the country this week and could not be reached for comment. Tearty Bartley, the director of corporate hospitality at Donovan's company, said only: "That's something you want to talk with Matt [Colangelo] about."

The Kroks also scaled back part of their summer tour and didn't make a planned South American leg of the trip because of a lack of money, students said.

But members stressed that the money Kimball spent was only a minor factor in the decision to scale down the trip.

Kimball has been a prominent student on campus. He is active in Democratic politics and ran--unsuccessfully--for senior class marshal this year.

'Every Penny'

Fleming said the group had a functioning system of accounting in place when Kimball took over.

"During the tenure of my predecessor and my term as manager, we followed scrupulous accounting procedures. We documented every penny that came in and that went out," Fleming said. "The system had been put in place and what happened during the '93-'94 school year was in the context of a functioning system."

Several members of the group said new accounting procedures have been put into place to prevent a similar situation from happening again.

Still, members said, the job of the general manager involves spending quite a bit of money and inappropriate expenses can get lost in the jumble of normal business operations.