Fraud and Ethics Investigations are conducted to review allegations of fraud, waste, abuse and ethical violations.  IAO is the owner of the county's Fraud Hotline which receives calls from county staff and county residents.  Additionally, allegations come from the IAO website Fraud Reporting Form, direct phone calls to our office, or in-person communication at our office.  Internal Audit ensures that other county agencies are brought into the investigation as needed (i.e. Police, Human Resources, Office of Public Affairs, etc.).  At the end of the investigation, Internal Audit ensures that proper controls are implemented if the area being investigated has an increased risk for fraud.  Finally, IAO also owns the Ethics Hotline where county employees can call to proactively call to report allegations of ethics violations and obtain advice on how to handle situations that arise involving ethical dilemmas.

Management Advisory Services are management requests for consultative projects that may involve the review of programs, goals, contracts, procedures, and controls within financial and operational areas.

Financial Reviews are financial analyses of organizations receiving funding from the county in which questions have arisen as to their financial viability.  Most of these reviews are performed for Human Services divisions that have financial concerns regarding their not-for-profit organization partners receiving county funding to provide public services.  These reviews are performed to ensure proper stewardship of these funds.

Construction Contract Review include reviews of proposed architect and engineer (A&E) overhead rates to ensure that only allowable costs are included so the county can negotiate the lowest rate; analyses to determine a construction firm's financial ability to complete required work prior to awarding the contract; and contractor claim reviews.

Training is conducted by Internal Audit staff to educate staff throughout the county on risk assessment, internal controls and fraud awareness.  IAO participates in county management training classes 4 times a year and works with the Office of Public Affairs to have regular fraud/ethics articles include in NewsLink and other newsletters circulating throughout the county.  the goal is to train county staff on developing good internal controls and be able to detect the warning signs of fraud to promote continuous monitoring even when an auditor is not performing audit work in that area.