Fraud, Waste, Abuse Hotline Policy
NEW Adopted: 9/8/21
Philosophy
The South Sanpete School District is accountable to education stakeholders and strives to ensure public trust and confidence that district resources are appropriately managed and safeguarded.
The South Sanpete School District Hotline, in coordination with the Utah State Board of Education Internal Audit Department, provides an avenue for education stakeholders (e.g., citizens, employees, contractors) toreport:
- Suspectedfinancialimproprieties or violations of (i) laws or applicable regulations
- Wasteormisuse of district funds or resources
- Grossmismanagement
- Abuseofauthority
- Unethicalconduct
- Constructivesuggestionsfor improving the district regarding financial-related matters, internalcontrols, or
The Hotline coordinates the efforts of existing resources and public education governance structures to ensure efficient and effective consideration of concerns, while mitigating potential duplication of efforts.
Utah Code § 67-21-3; 63G-2-305
Fraud, Waste, Abuse Hotline Complaint Procedures:
Complaints may be submitted through any of the following avenues:
Email:
Phone: 801-538-7813 – this is a dedicated line just for hotlines.
US Mail: Director of Internal Audit
Utah State Board of Education PO Box 144200
250 East 500 South
Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-4200
In-Person: by visiting the offices of the Internal Audit Department at the Utah State Board of Education (seeaddress above).
Direct Webpage submission: Report Fraud, Waste, or Abuse Form tab at https://schools.utah.gov/internalaudit
Consider including the following information with your concerns:
- Descriptionofthe suspected violation(s).
- Thenameof the employee(s)
- Theschool,division, and location where the action
- Thedate(s)the action
- Any other details that may be important for the investigation – other witness, evidence, documents, dollar amounts, time period, etcetera.
- Specificlawor regulation that has been violated if
- Yourname,address, email, and phone number, although personally identifiable information is not required (i.e., you may report anonymously). If you elect to provide personally identifiable information, you may still choose to keep your information confidential (see Confidentialitybelow).
Whistleblower Protection
Utah Code § 67-21-3 prohibits public employers from taking adverse action against their employees for reporting government waste or violations of law in good faith, to the appropriate authorities. A school district employee is presumed to have communicated in good faith if they have given written notice or otherwiseformally communicated the conduct to a governing or management body or audit office as outlined in Utah Code§
67-21-3(1)(b)(iv) and (vi). Whistleblower protections do not apply to anonymous complaints.
Confidentiality
The identity of the complainant is considered protected information under the Utah Government Records Accessand Management Act (GRAMA) and will be kept confidential if requested by the complainant and to the extentallowed by law. (See Utah Code § 63G-2-305).
Complaints may be submitted anonymously to the Hotline; however, it is preferable that the complainant provide their name andcontact information to allow for follow-up questions.