HIID told Kiley they didn't want to use Harvard money to pay him, but the US AID money had run out. Kiley, who had recently refurbished his apartment in expectation of the additional money, says he then found himself in fiscal jeopardy.

His wife, a Slovakian national, lost her visa to come to the United States because of this debt, Kiley said.

Harvard, for its part, says it does not owe Kiley any money, though it will not comment on the terms of its employees' contracts.

But Kiley says HIID's organization makes it prone to disputes like his. HIID project managers are expected to write monthly reports, detailing for the home office how each program is running. But, Kiley says, the reports are often little more than rehashed versions of the previous month's--sometimes with nothing more than a change of date.

"The Institute is way undermanaged," Kiley says. "I thought it would be super to work for HIID because I loved Harvard. But HIID did not represent the Harvard I went to--they felt no compunction about screwing over their advisors."

Oversight

With operations touching some 60 countries around the globe, HIID is undoubtedly a complicated organization to keep in check. It is a situation, some say, that is ripe for disaster.

Last spring, Fineberg commissioned a Coopers and Lybrand audit of HIID's management structure, which he says basically signed off on HIID's current organization.