In order to safeguard University assets, the Board of Trustees has approved a course of action for disclosure of fraud, waste and abuse of resources against University employees.

Created by the boards’ Audit Committee in collaboration with Internal Auditor Bahram Hatefi, the process covers allegations of theft, embezzlement and other forms of financial misconduct.

“We wanted to have a procedure that the fraud abuse and the financial abuser could be reported to somewhere, so we could be able to investigate,” Hatefi said. “A lot of the incidences of fraud abuse cannot really be identified through the regular audit process.”

According to Hatefi, examples of misconduct would include things such as personal use of state properties and University supplies, personal use of computers and telephones and falsifying official documents such as time sheets and travel vouchers.

“It is ultimately based on the employee’s feeling that this needs to be reported and then we will judge it and see if it is significant enough to investigate,” Hatefi said.

The new policy aims to encourage University employees who suspect any of these forms of misconduct to contact the Office of Internal Auditing and Advisory Services.

Individuals who do report such instances of misuse can either identify themselves or opt to remain anonymous. The process, Hatefi says, is strictly confidential and all information will be exposed to those only on a kneed to know basis.

“They absolutely do not have to give a name and under no circumstances would we trace the call and try to find out who they are,” Hatefi said. “And if we do know the individual, we are not going to bring the name out to any supervisors who could put some kind of pressure on that individual.”

However, if an individual chooses not to identify their self, Hatefi says they will be asked to contact the office three weeks after allegations were made.

“The reason is that if we do know the allegations are valid, we may need some more information that the individual may be able to give us.”

According to Hatefi all allegations will be seriously considered and will be

pursued on the extent of quality and quantity of information received and available evidence. Hatefi says that it important that the individual not only report the instance as soon as possible to the audit staff but also be able to supply some kind of documentation or be able to provide location, date, time and/or witnesses that will support their allegations.

“It is more difficult for us to investigate unless we have some information because there may be some serious allegations of fraud and abuse, but if we do not have enough documentation we cannot investigate.”

Employees who suspect any suspicious activities are encouraged to report these instances either in person, by telephone, fax, letter, or email to the Office of Internal Auditing and Advisory Services, room 911 in the Administration building. Call 2-9970:fax 2-0235, or email bhatefi@[email protected].