PROHIBITION AGAINST ILLEGAL AND FRAUDULENT ACTS AGAINST TSBVI
School officers and employees are strictly prohibited under the law and under this policy from engaging in any illegal, improper, or dishonest, acts and/or practices that may involve the School.
Officers and employees who engage in such acts are subject to immediate termination of employment.
PURSUING LEGAL REMEDIES
The School shall pursue available legal remedies against persons or entities, including School officers and employees who engage in fraudulent acts against the School. Remedies include, but are not limited to, terminating employment, requiring restitution, and forwarding of information regarding suspected fraud to the appropriate authorities for criminal prosecution.
SCOPE OF PROHIBITED ACTS
Within this policy, illegal, improper and/or dishonest acts and/or practices include, but are not limited to:
- Theft.
- Fraud.
- Embezzlement.
- Bribery, rebate, and “kick-back.”
- Misappropriation, misapplication, destruction, removal, or concealment of property.
- Conflicts of interest.
ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITY
Administrators of all School departments shall be responsible for identifying potential areas of risk within their respective departments in which fraudulent activities might occur and for implementing reasonable measures to prevent such fraudulent activities.
DUTY TO REPORT FRAUD
A state agency appropriated funds by the Texas Legislature, shall use appropriated funds to assist with the detection and reporting of fraud involving state funds by waste and abuse involving state resources directly to the State Auditor’s Office. This shall include, at a minimum, the State Auditor’s Office fraud hotline information and a link to the State Auditor’s Office website for fraud reporting. (Current General Appropriations Act, Article IX, Sec. 7.09) See link and hotline below.
Any officer or employee who has reason to suspect that any person, including a school officer or employee, is engaging in any type of fraudulent activity against the School including theft, fraud, embezzlement, bribery, rebate, kick-back, misappropriation, misapplication, destruction, and removal or concealment of School property or conflict of interest (see Policy DHD), shall report the suspected fraudulent activity to the Superintendent in person, by phone, in writing, or by email. The individual reporting should state the individual(s), School department(s) or other entities involved; describe the fraud, waste, or abuse that is being reported, and any other detail that might assist the Superintendent or the State Auditor. As much detail as possible should be provided so that appropriate action can be taken. The individual reporting may choose to report anonymously, or provide a phone number or email address at which the reporter can be contacted for more information. In no event shall any TSBVI officer, or employee, take any retaliatory action against the person making the report.
The School officer or employee also has the option to report suspected waste, fraud, or abuse of state resources directly to the Texas State Auditor’s Office by:
- accessing the link found under “Report Fraud” (on the home page of TSBVI’s website or on the School’s Intranet page,
- calling 1-800-TX-AUDIT,
- by emailing [email protected],
- linking to https://sao.fraud.texas.gov/reportfraud,
- faxing to 512/936-9812 or
- writing:
State Auditor’s Office
ATTN: Investigations and Audit Support
P.O. Box 12067
Austin, TX 78711.
The officer or employee reporting any type of fraudulent activity against the School to the State Auditor may make the report anonymously.
INVESTIGATION OF REPORTS
Reports of fraudulent activities shall be investigated in accordance with procedures developed and implemented by the Superintendent. To the extent possible, the Superintendent shall investigate anonymous reports in the same manner as reports from a named person.
SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT TO STATE AUDITOR AND TO THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES REGARDING SUSPECTED FRAUDULENT ACTIVITIES
If the Superintendent has reasonable cause to believe, which is more than mere suspicion and based on particular facts which support the belief, that money received from the State by TSBVI or a TSBVI contract may have been lost, misappropriated, or misused, or that other fraudulent or unlawful conduct has occurred in relation to the operation of TSBVI, the Superintendent shall report the reason and basis for the belief to the state auditor and to the TSBVI Board of Trustees. The state auditor may investigate the report or may monitor any investigation conducted by TSBVI. Gov’t. Code §321.022, 811.101-.102
The report to the state auditor should include a description of the incident, the estimated value of the loss, the identity of all persons who may have involvement or knowledge relating to the loss, and a description of such involvement or knowledge, a description of the evidence, and the name and telephone number of the agency employee responsible for resolving the incident.
Adopted: 1/24/97
Amended: 1/23/98, 1/26/99, 9/25/15, 6/1/18
Reviewed: