R ecently a U bookstore employee was arrested for embezzling funds. A total of $142,000 was stolen from the bookstore over a period of about two years.

The fraud was discovered during a routine internal audit.

These audits are conducted every five years for every money-making organization at the U.

The circumstances of the case present a troubling dilemma for the U in regard to other organizations on campus.

In-depth internal audits are necessary to uncover fraud similar in nature to what happened at the bookstore.

These kinds of audits, however, require much time and staff and therefore can only be conducted on a limited basis.

If the bookstore employee was able to embezzle $142,000 in just two years, how much might have been embezzled over three or four years?

An audit every five years seems to be too long a period to ensure that student’s interests are protected.

Det. Mike McPharlin, one of the investigating detectives from the U, stated that cases similar to this are fairly infrequent.

He cites the fact that only seven or eight cases in the 21 years he has served at the U have been prosecuted.

This could indicate that embezzlement is an infrequent practice on campus, and with hope, that is the case.

However, it could also mean that the U is not very effective at preventing embezzlement on campus from happening on a more requent basis.

Increasing the frequency of audits seems to be the safest solution.

It is a simple case of spending a little more money to save a lot more money.

Audits also need to be conducted on a random basis, so as to prevent people from planning their criminal activity around scheduled audits.

It is unfortunate that an embezzlement situation such as this ever occurred at this university.

It would be even more unfortunate if the U failed to make systemic changes that would prevent such things from ever happening again.

The U needs to take steps that would allow frequent and random audits of money-making organizations possible.

By taking such steps, the interests of the campus would be better protected and preserved.