All wires are connected

     The Board of Regents has recently launched an Ethics and Reporting Hotline at GCSU. The hotline is contracted with a third party vendor called The Network.
     Universities across the country, including the University of California, Michigan State and Rutgers, have engaged in hotlines on their campuses as a tool to enable faculty and staff to report unethical acts concerning financial misconduct, safety, academic misrepresentation, and human resources.
     “What we have seen with private industries is that there have been more statistics that prove that if there is some kind of mechanism that employees could go to, to report unethical acts, it has always been beneficial,” Julie Guthrie-Hann, CIA internal auditor said.
     Providing services to companies across the world, The Network provides a staffed toll-free service, 24-hours a day, seven days a week. Employees may also submit a claim online if they prefer to do so. Links to The Network can be found on the websites of the Office of Internal Audit, Office of Legal Affairs and Human Resources Intranet.
     “There are a team of people that (are) on-call that are very professional in nature. They are very experienced company that has been established for awhile,” Guthrie- Hann said.
     The Network is extremely detailed, putting together a report whether the claim is called in or received online. Notification of the incident is sent to the campus as soon as the claim is filed, though complete confidentiality is upheld.
     Selected by the Board of Regents, the cost of the hotline is very minimum.
     “The Board of Regents actually did most of the leg work. They went out and selected the company for us to go with, and are putting up an implementation costs and things like that. The funding for us is so minimum that it’s very immaterial for us,” Guthrie-Hann said.
     While a banner appears on faculty, staff and student MyCats accounts, providing information concerning the Ethics and Reporting Hotline, it is only to be used by faculty and staff.
     “The Ethics and Reporting Hotline is geared towards employees. (It) is for employees to report any type of concerns that they may have with the processes, procedures, the conduct going on in their areas or that they see on campus,” Guthrie-Hann said. “It is really for employees to report items of abuses, fraud, unethical behavior, and things like that.”
Dr. John D. Cox, associate professor of English, also believes that the Hotline is a useful program.
     “I think that it is a very good idea; that any kind of institution, particularly an institution of this size, needs some kind of system in place for people to report problems that they see, and they might not, depending on the nature of the problems that they see, be comfortable going to other people they know whether employees or their supervisors,”  Cox said.
While not intended for student use, a student would not be ignored if they did call the hotline.
     “Obviously if a student didn’t know where to go, where to turn to and they called this number, of course we would take a look at it and take the appropriate steps to look into whatever it is they are reporting,” Guthrie-Hann said. “We always encourage students to talk to their deans or their faculty about their concerns, and again this is kind of geared more towards employees than students, so it’s not really geared towards them.”
     While faculty members seem to embrace the new hotline, some would like to see the hotline opened to students as well.
     “This whole system is supposed to serve (students). I am kind of a student advocate in that I want faculty inquisitions involving students that are very visible, but we have all power and (students) don’t,” Dr. Robert Viau, professor of English and assistant director of Honors & Scholars Program and Academic Affairs.
     “The structure of the system – the hierarchy – the flow of power is on the side of faculty and administration, so I would like to see students have an outlet, a reporting mechanism too,” Viau said.
     Though while Viau feels strongly about allowing the students to have a voice, Cox understands why they are not included in the new hotline.
     “I suppose the idea is that a student would go to a trusted faculty member, or staff member, or an employee about the problem they saw; maybe that’s the hope of the system. It would be ideal if student also felt welcomed to call the hotline, but I guess I understand why (they are not),” Cox said.
     In the meantime, the Office of Internal Audit is working hard to visit employees and departments on campus to inform them of the Fiscal Misconduct Policy, informing them of procedures, and encouraging them to come forward if they feel something is not right. Packets including a Question & Answers, as well as a brochure and wallet card with contact information are also being distributed. Guthrie-Hann hopes to have visited each department by the middle of February.
     “It’s just another tool that if an employee doesn’t feel comfortable maybe coming forward to their supervisor, dean, or whoever it is to one of us here on campus, that they could report it anonymously to the hotline,” Guthrie-Hann said.
Guthrie-Hann emphasizes while the hotline is helpful, direct communication is encouraged.
     “If an employee sees something in the workplace, I always try to stress for them to come forward to discuss that with their supervisor or to Human Resources or to myself, or director of Legal Affairs, because then if we know who it is that’s reporting it, obviously we can talk about it more with them to see exactly what it is that they saw and ask a little bit more questions,” Guthrie-Hann said.
     The toll-free number for The Network is: 1-877-516-3432. If you prefer, you can report your claim online by visiting www.reportlineweb.com/GCSU.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 1 2008. 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