Risky Business

By Joffery A. Blair
Staff Writer

A former Business Office employee has been arrested and charged with a felony for stealing $5, 310 over a one to two-year period, campus police said Wednesday.
According to Richard Goodson, Deputy Director of Public Safety, Terri Hurt, age 39, faces a fine of up to $1,000 and or, one to 10 years of jail time with the possiblity of paying restitution to the university.
“She was charged with a felony because of the amount that was stolen,” Goodson said. “Not only does she face a $1,000 fine but also 1 to 10 years of jail time.”
Pam Glover, Senior Director of Financial Services, states that Hurt has been with the university for about seven years.
“Ms. Hurt worked for the University in the Business Office for seven years,” Glover said.
According to the official public safety report, on Wednesday, Feb. 6, Glover contacted the Public Safety office about the results of an internal audit.
According to the report, the audit revealed that Hurt had been collecting cash at the collection window, while issuing receipts without placing the cash into the cash box over a one to two-year period.
“The time period was actually about a year and one-half,” Glover said. “Mrs. Hurt was a loyal employee for five and a half years, none of her transactions failed audit tests during that time.”
Glover states that because there were small amounts taken over a long period of time, initially, the discrepancies within the transactions did not surface.
“The amounts taken were small, and auditing procedures require sampling a greater number of large transactions, and fewer small transactions so the difference did not surface immediately,” Glover said.
According to the report, during a second interview held on Monday, Feb. 11, Hurt confessed to the crime.
Goodson states that after they received a confession, the processed report was forwarded to the Attorney General’s office.
“We will be working one on one with the Attorney General’s office,” Goodson said. “She may have to go before a judge and take the case to court, or she may be able to enter a plea bargain with the Attorney General.”
Glover states that the Business Office performs random audits periodically on all of their assets.
“Accounting principles support sampling procedures because it is impossible for an organization to look at every transaction in every audit,” Glover said.
Glover states that although this does not occur often, the Business Office has taken precautions to prevent this from reoccurring.
“Additional processes are now under dual control,” Glover said. “Audit procedures have been modified to include analysis of a larger number of transactions.”
“We have a lot of sharp people working in the Business Office,” Goodson said. “This is really a sealed tight case and chances are the university will get their money back because she will have to pay restitution.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 22 2002. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry