An Oregon University System office is conducting an audit of the University’s Department of Public Safety for the first time in at least five years, according to the University and OUS.
The OUS Internal Audit Division is currently auditing the public safety department’s parking operations, which is funded through parking permits, fees and citations.
General Counsel to the University Melinda Grier wouldn’t say what prompted the audit or whether missing funds triggered it. Calls and e-mails to DPS Interim Director Tom Hicks were not returned.
Grier wrote that University Vice President for Finance and Administration Frances Dyke “communicated with all appropriate individuals and contacted OUS internal audit.”
Dyke issued a memorandum to all faculty and staff on Nov. 10, reminding them that the Policy on Financial Irregularities requires “employees of the Oregon University System to report known or suspected financial irregularities to the appropriate department manager at the time they become aware of an incident. The department manager is then responsible for forwarding the report to the institutional designated administrator in a timely manner.”
Grier, in an e-mail to the Emerald, wrote that the Internal Audit Division’s report will be issued soon.
“They have requested we follow their protocol of not responding to specific questions about an audit until the audit report is issued,” she wrote.
Patricia Snopkowski, director of the audit division, wrote in an e-mail that the audit is the first her division has conducted in the five years she’s been employed there. Snopkowski, who contracts for all outside audits, wrote that DPS isn’t currently undergoing an outside audit.
When asked about the possible repercussions if financial irregularities or irregularities caused by embezzlement are discovered in the audit, Grier wrote that irregularities can occur when employees don’t understand proper accounting procedures, commit typographical errors or don’t follow cash-handling procedures, in which case the University would decide whether to impose sanctions on the employee.
If the University discovered an employee embezzled funds or committed another crime involving University resources, “the employee would almost certainly be disciplined and, again depending on the circumstances, subject to criminal prosecution.”

Contact the news editor at [email protected]