Fraud Awareness
Fraud Defined
Per the Institute of Internal Auditors’ Global Internal Audit Standards, FRAUD is defined as any intentional act characterized by deceit, concealment, dishonesty, misappropriation of assets or information, forgery, or violation of trust perpetrated by individuals or organizations to secure unjust or illegal personal or business advantage.
Therefore, the perpetration of fraud clearly breaches the SIU University Guideline addressing University Employee Misconduct.
Internal Audit and Fraud
Internal Audit implements proactive audit procedures including, but not limited to, data and transaction monitoring and analysis, departmental inquiries which provide insight into fraudulent practices and surprise audits.
How Fraud Hurts the University
Surprisingly, some employees view the theft of a few thousand dollars from a big organization as having a negligible impact on the entire company. Others might believe that manipulating numbers and accounting records to help the company reach its goals is a helpful act. These are simply justifications and rationalizations by the employee, who likely is very aware of this ethical breach. All frauds result in lost resources and decreased productivity; investments of time and money into investigation, punishment, and remediation; and damage to the company's reputation and many times, other employee morale.
How Fraud Hurts Employees
Fraud perpetrated by employees can/will ultimately negatively affect everyone at the University through increased scrutiny, decreased trust throughout the organization, increased implementation of additional safe-guarding procedures, decreased salaries, possible layoffs, and the need to compensate for or offset any negative consequences of the fraud. Every employee, therefore, should aid in fraud prevention and detection efforts.
Examples of Reportable Fraud
Examples of financial/ethical fraudulent offenses include:
- Using university funds to purchase items for personal use (technology devices, food, home office décor)
- Stealing company assets (cash, receivables, inventory)
- Forging or altering checks and or other financial documents
- Intentionally misstating financial statements or other financial documents
- Examples of compliance/ethical fraudulent offenses include:
- Accepting bribes from or paying bribes to vendors or customers
- Engaging in transactions in which the employee has an undisclosed conflict of interest
- Destroying company records with malicious intent
- Disclosing proprietary information to competitors
- Inflating reported hours worked to obtain overtime status/pay
What Should You Do If You Suspect Fraud or Misconduct?
Any employee who suspects fraudulent activity is occurring should not attempt to personally contact the suspected individual in an effort to determine facts, conduct investigations or perform interviews /interrogations. Care must be taken to avoid mistaken accusations or alerting suspected individuals that an investigation may be underway.
If you are aware of a situation in which you suspect fraud , you may report your concern via written report or verbally via our Ethics and Fraud Hotline at 844-597-6463.
- Please keep in mind, the identity of the reporter will remain confidential to the extent allowed by law. In addition, reporters may choose to file their report anonymously.
