16.7.4 Administration and Responsibility for the Ethics and Compliance Reporting Hotline

(Last Modified on August 14, 2020)

The President of each institution shall appoint an administrator who will serve as the Ethics Line Coordinator. The Ethics Line Coordinator will be responsible for the efficient and effective operation of the Ethics Line to include:

1. Ensuring the Ethics Line is easily accessible from the institution’s webpage;
2. Ensuring awareness of the Ethics Line at the institution by staff, faculty and students. Awareness efforts may include posters, internal communications, awareness activities, interdepartmental webpages, orientation material, social media and messaging from institutional leadership;
3. The timely resolution of all reports received; and
4. Ensuring access to the Ethics Line is properly restricted to those who need access and removing access from those who should no longer have access due to a change in their employment status or job duties.

Each USG institution is encouraged to establish a triage committee to review and manage reports received on the Ethics Line. Triage committee members may include representatives from internal audit, the office of legal affairs, compliance, human resources, public safety/campus police, information security or other functions at the discretion of the institutional President. However, all reports received regarding potential fraud, waste and abuse must be shared with the USG Office of Ethics and Compliance. Issues involving members of the triage committee or institutional executive management shall be referred to the USG Office of Ethics & Compliance for remediation and/or investigation.