Audits

If you are contacted by an auditor:

This policy is extracted from a February 24, 2009 advisory memorandum from Joseph Gindhart, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Finance and Director of Sponsored Project Accounting, regarding an audit.

If an employee of the Department of Developmental Biology is contacted regarding an audit, in person by an auditor or via the telephone, the following procedure should be followed. In most cases, there will be prior notice that the auditors will be making inquires.

  1. Please cooperate with the auditors. NIH, NSF and other organizations have the right to audit the University’s use of their funds, and your cooperation is part of your University’s duties.

Please allow sufficient time to speak with the auditor. You should not hesitate to reschedule a meeting or call with the auditor if they contact you at an inconvenient time or if you begin a meeting or phone call and it becomes inconvenient for you to complete the conversation.

Please be truthful. State as fact only those matters you know to be fact. Do not guess or speculate. If you do not recall specific details, please state such. If you would like to review specific PARS reports, grant applications, reports, teaching schedules, or other records of your activities before or after the meeting/call, you should feel free to do so, and Sponsored Projects Accounting and the Department will be glad to assist if you need any such documentation.

Please request the name of the auditor.

You should feel free to verify with Sponsored Projects Accounting or the Department that the auditor calling is an authorized auditor. Before an audit is conducted, the names of the auditors should be known. Often, a member of Sponsored Project Accounting and/or University Internal Audit will be in the meeting or on the phone with the auditor. These people are there to witness the conversation and assist with the answer of general questions.

Please promptly notify the Department of Developmental Biology administrative office.

Office procedure

If you receive a call from an auditor, the Department of Developmental Biology administrative office will in turn notify Joseph Gindhart, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Finance & Director of Sponsored Project Accounting, (314-935-7089 or jgindhart@wustl.edu) or call Gail Peters, Executive Director of Compliance and Audit, University Internal Audit (314-362-4915 or petersg@wustl.edu).