WSU Audit Update Blog

WSU Export Control & Compliance Officer James Elliott joins us again for part two of his column explaining the prevalence and importance of Export Controls. Elliott summarizes the principal areas subject to Export Controls, followed by those that are not, and when to seek guidance.

Export Controls are more prevalent than you might think at first. WSU Export Control & Compliance Officer James Elliott joins us this month for the first of a two-part column. Elliott provides an overview of the vast number of regulatory items under the giant umbrella known as "Export Controls."

An essential part of cybersecurity is compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), an initiative designed to protect payment card data. The university has a committee of finance and IT professionals dedicated to overseeing its compliance effort. What cybersecurity risk is most relevant to WSU?

Taking a break from our internal control series, I'm sharing excerpts from a recent edition of The Art of Noticing newsletter. I had an opportunity to share with Rob Walker how his "Art of Noticing" theme resonated with this group. Rob loved it and featured the WSU Audit Update Blog in his newsletter.

Petty cash is a small amount of money kept in a department for incidental expenses. This case caught my attention because the fraudster allegedly embezzled more than $57,000 from petty cash over four years. There's nothing trivial about $57,000. This post is a primer about petty cash and change funds so you can distinguish between them and know how they work at WSU.

Previous blog posts have featured misappropriation schemes at other universities to highlight the importance of segregation of duties, management oversight, and other control activities. A $500,000 embezzlement at another Kansas Board of Regents university provides a closer-to-home look at what can go wrong when one person has complete control of departmental operations.

Without using the title of your job, tell me what you do. Interim president Rick Muma and more than a dozen others replied to the icebreaker I shared last month. Some were succinct, while others were longer and included a bit of personality or humor. Using our skills to help and support others is the predominant theme.

A theme that struck a chord this year was Rob Walker's "The Art of Noticing." Exploring this theme more closely, Walker asks if you're noticing what you want to notice? Are you noticing the things you care about?

This column is an index of Audit Update blog posts that reference the WSU Policies and Procedures Manual. The context provided by the blog posts highlights why the policies were developed and adopted and how they can guide you toward desired outcomes or combat harmful consequences.

A conflict of interest exists when a person's outside or private interests affect - or appear to affect - their institutional responsibilities and judgment as a Wichita State employee. What does a conflict of interest look like? Here are four situations where officials at other universities had their judgment or ethics questioned.