A FRAUD PREVENTION POLICY: ITS RELEVANCE AND IMPLICATION AT A UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY IN SOUTH AFRICA

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Amelia Rorwana, Robertson K. Tengeh ORCID logo, Tichaona B. Musikavanhu ORCID logo

https://doi.org/10.22495/jgr_v4_i3_c2_p3

Abstract

Using research grants administrators and their clients (academic researchers) as the lens, this paper investigated the relevance and implication of a fraud prevention policy at a University of Technology (UoT) in South Africa. The paper adopted a quantitative approach in which closed-ended questions were complemented by open-ended questions in the survey questionnaire in the attempt to capture the perceptions of both research grants administrators and their clients on the relevance and implications of a fraud and irregularity prevention policy. The results indicate that both research grants administrators (71.4 %), and their clients (73%) do not know if UoTx has a fraud and irregularity policy. While only 36% of research grants administrators indicated that they would feel safe reporting deceitful activities, a slight majority (59%) of the clients reported same. With regards to the steps to follow to report fraudulent activity, it was noted that while all (100%) the research grants administrators noted that they were clueless, ironically an overwhelming majority of their clients indicated otherwise. Notwithstanding, both research grants administrators and their clients (93% and 95% respectively) concurred that a fraud prevention policy was necessary for UoTx. The implication is that having phenomenal controls that are not effectively publicized, monitored or worse still overridden by someone are useless.

Keywords: Fraud Prevention, Research Grant Administrators, Financial Fraud, South African Universities of Technology

How to cite this paper: Rorwana, A., Tengeh, R. K., & Musikavanhu, T. B. (2015). A fraud prevention policy: Its relevance and implication at a university of technology in South Africa. Journal of Governance and Regulation, 4(3-2), 212-221. https://doi.org/10.22495/jgr_v4_i3_c2_p3