Financial Scandal (False Invoice Racket) at York University (December 2012)

From the link: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1306447--york-university-sues-former-executive-for-vast-fraud

In the year 2012, we heard of 2 scandals at 2 Canadian Universities

• A bloated, unauthorized executive expense scandal at the University of Calgary
• A false invoice scandal at York University.
• Wonder which one is next?

These occurances raise some questions:

• Why are Universities prone to scandals?
• Of course, there are financial scandals in every organization, but is there something different about Universities?
• What are the measures in place at Canadian Universities to prevent scandals?
• Is there sufficient transparency and accountability? Is there proper auditing? External auditing?
• Are enough questions asked by the stakeholders like the students and general public?
• Scandals can occur when there is asymmetry of information, or information hidden from general public. Are there open tenders for contracts and for materials supplied, or is there no bidding?

In any case, it is the duty of the students and the general public to be vigilant and raise alarm when they see something suspicious. Otherwise, as is human nature, people will try to steal cookies from the jar if there is no one watching or no one is paying attention.

Cheers,
Gerry.