Several weeks after a former Ohio State University employee was found embezzling money from the parking department, Ohio University’s department of Internal Audit is compiling the results of its own universitywide cash collection audit.

OU’s audit was initiated to ensure the correct handling of money at OU. All employees who collect money in any form through their department were required to fill out a cash collection point inventory form.

Each department that collects money, from Baker University Center to the Office of the Bursar, filled out the form describing exactly how and why they collect money, as well as where it goes after it is collected.

Once money is received in a department, whether it is money collected through housing deposits in the Housing Office or in Baker Center for use of the pool tables, it must be recorded and sent to the Bursar.

The form asks each department to describe its cash-handling procedures, each individual who is responsible for collecting money and how often the department collects funds. After completion, the forms were to be sent to Internal Audit by mid-April.

In February, a former OSU employee pleaded guilty to charges of theft and telecommunications fraud after stealing $63,000 from OSU’s Parking Services.  The employee transferred money he collected from “inactive parking permits” into his own credit card accounts, using university equipment to hide the thefts.

Director of Internal Audit Kathy Gilmore said the occurrence at OSU did not directly have anything to do with prompting
OU’s audit.

“It’s just a good business management practice,” Gilmore said, adding that no one thing prompted the audit. “It’s a big place; lots of things have brought (the audit) about, things that we see going on, things in the news.

“It’s a good business practice to have a handle on your cash,” she added. “As much as we wanted to do the audit, we also wanted to make people aware of how it is that they’re supposed to handle cash and when they should do it and when they shouldn’t.”

Senior Auditor Susan Jago, who is working with Gilmore and other members of Internal Audit to conduct the audit, agreed. “The purpose is to help people understand what they need to be doing (with the funds) and whether or not they should be doing it in the first place,” she said.

The audit will also help Internal Audit determine whether or not certain areas of OU need to be collecting funds at all, Gilmore said.

“There’s a whole (concern with) safeguarding the cash, reconciling the cash that you collect, making certain that you do turn in the amount you should have, and that’s time-consuming for people,” she said. “It’s important and they have to do it, but it’s easier if it can be handled another way if it can be.”

Gilmore said about 220 cash collection inventory forms have been collected and no abnormalities have been found so far.

There are “a lot” consequences for employees who are found to be handling the cash in a way they shouldn’t be, Jago said.

“A lot would depend of intent, for one thing,” Jago said. “Obviously if it’s a deliberate misuse of funds, it’s a legal issue and they could be prosecuted.”

Jago added that if it’s simply a “mistake,” that employee or department would go through a training seminar to educate them on the proper procedures for handling funds.

“Certainly we would want the opportunity to find these places … so we can instruct people and use it as an educational tool so they are doing it right,” Jago said. “Most people we find if they’re doing something wrong, they’re appalled.”

The next step in the audit will be to compile and analyze the forms, Gilmore said. Internal Audit will look at the results and see the reasons why people are collecting cash, and find out if there is another way the cash can be handled.

“Right now, I don’t think that we know how many places are regularly collecting cash,” Gilmore said. “I’m sure that some of those places that can easily be eliminated as a cash collection point.”

The results will be presented at the next Board of Trustees meeting in June.