But at the board meeting at which the embezzlement was announced at least one board member, attorney Casimir de Rham '46, wondered why the extra spending had not been caught in an audit.

The Boston firm Coopers & Lybrand performed an external audit of the magazine's financial statements each year, according to Michael J. Barone, director of internal audit.

Barone said the University also oversees the magazine's spending, but he declined to give specifics on how Harvard might have acted to prevent the theft.

"The internal audit looks at the system," Barone explained. "Compliance, protection--which we call safeguarding--effectiveness and efficiency, those are the kind of objectives we have."

Daniel Steiner '54, a member of the magazine's board of incorporators, said some financial oversights are inevitable in a large institution.

"Some embezzlements are going to escape notice in any organization," Steiner said. "The cost of putting systems into place which would catch everything right away would be enormous.