Reduce the risks and consequences of errors or fraud. 

Departments with effective internal controls, both preventative and detective, can reduce the risks and consequences of errors or fraud. 

Although university financial systems have forced separation of duties for the initiator and approver of a transaction, many transactions that have been generated outside those systems do not. You should pay closer attention to transactions that are directly fed into the ledger by recharge departments and direct charges for airfare, local hotel or catering from the campus Preferred Booking Program.

Best Practices

Preferred Booking Program

When an employee uses AggieExpense, BCD Travel, the Local Hotel program, or campus Catering Services and direct bills the university, these transactions are not routed for approval. The expenses post directly to the department billing entity that the employee/traveler has established in their profile.  This direct billing leaves the university at risk for potential misuse or fraud if the Chart String/PPM Project Manager approvers are not performing their monthly reviews.  Best practices for these transactions:

• No personal travel/expenses should be charged to the university.  Spouse/partner travel that will be billed to the university and is allowed per policy should be pre-approved prior to booking the travel/expense.
• Send reminders to travelers that have unreconciled transactions greater than 30 days.

Employee Reimbursements

Employee reimbursements are more vulnerable to error or fraud as these transactions have bypassed all approved purchasing methods.  These reimbursements should be the exception and not the norm.  If you are receiving multiple reimbursement requests from the same employee within a small time frame your department should advise the employee of the proper purchasing methods.  Best practices when reviewing requests for employee reimbursements:

• Look for duplicate submissions for out of pocket reimbursements.
• If the employee has a Procurement Card, look for transactions submitted as a Procurement Card transaction but also as an out of pocket reimbursement.
• Departments should restrict employee reimbursements as much as possible.
• Provide new employees with guidance on purchasing practices and direct them to the "How to Buy" guide. 

Gift Cards

Best practices for managing gift cards.

• Treat gift cards like you would cash.
• Always maintain gift cards under dual custody.
• Maintain a gift card distribution log to record the distribution of gift cards.
• Conduct random audits of the gift cards and the gift card log. This should be performed by someone not involved in the custody and distribution of the gift cards.
• Gift cards purchased in excess of policy limits for employees or non-employees must be reported to Tax Reporting & Compliance.
• If you are purchasing gift cards for spot awards that will be used throughout the year, do not purchase more than you expect to use within the fiscal year (July-June).
• Purchase gift cards through Aggie Enterprise.

Procurement Card (P-Card transactions)

Procurement Cards are at higher risk of misuse or fraud when the Chart Approver/PPM Project Manager is not performing adequate reviews, or if the department does not have an appropriate separation of duties. Departments should have someone other than the cardholder verifying all purchases have been received and accounted for. Best practices for P-Card transactions:

• Ensure receipt of purchases has been performed, and custody of item is not maintained by the purchaser. This will help prevent items being returned for store credit by the purchaser.
• Review receipts to ensure no personal purchases.
• Establish a process to ensure purchaser provides receipts in a timely manner.  A P-Card can be canceled if the purchaser is not following department processes or following campus policies.
• For more information on what is an allowable/unallowable purchase visit the Procurement Card page.

Travel

Travel is an especially high-risk area for misuse or fraud. One way to mitigate the risk is to require pre-trip approval for all travel and utilize AggieExpense as the pre-approval system. Best practices for reviewing travel reports:

• Review explanations and ensure the traveler is not requesting reimbursement for items that have already been pre-paid or have been previously paid on a different expense report.
• If the employee has appointments in two departments, think about coordinating travel expenses reports with the other department to ensure both departments are not reimbursing the traveler for the same expenses.
• Review all exceptions noted by AggieExpense and ensure the appropriate review/action has taken place.
• Ensure the accounts being charged are appropriate for the fund source.
• If you have concerns with the type of travel or repeatedly high cost/luxury travel, be sure to discuss your concerns with the MSO/CAO/Manager of your department.