The Bottom Line - Fall 2020 - 13

OFFICE OF INTEGRITY AND OVERSIGHT
HOW WE ARE SUCCEEDING

MOVING FORWARD
By Tim Barry, Executive Director

W

hen we were advised that we would
need to work remotely due to the
pandemic, we focused primarily on the
essentials such as making sure everyone had
their laptops, access to the VPN and network systems, and training on new software
tools like Microsoft Teams. Director Tisha
Edwards, Director James Glymph and I discussed working remotely and we believed
conducting our audits and investigations
would proceed as usual.

As the pandemic continued and realizing
that everyone within the OCFO was dealing
with changes to both their professional and
personal lives, we began to see challenges in
moving forward with some of our work. We
typically meet witnesses and subjects of our
investigations in person because we can go
over documents identified as relevant to the
investigation, take written statements, and
build rapport with those individuals we meet.
As for our ongoing audits, since the OCFO is
still a heavily paper driven organization, we
typically meet with OCFO staff to get necessary documents so we can conduct our
audit field work and testing. Not having the
opportunity to meet with people in person
or access to hard copy documents certainly
put a crimp in our day-to-day operations. We

"To move forward we worked
together to identify ways we
could be more efficient..."
soon realized that some of our work would be
delayed and possibly not completed until we
got back into the office and one critical piece
to the value of our work, timeliness, would be
negatively impacted.
To move forward we worked together to
identify ways we could be more efficient if
working remotely continued throughout the
summer and into the fall. Tisha Edwards, and
Audit Managers Tony The and Norman Lowe,
in communication with our stakeholders,
identified projects where access to information and documents would not be an issue.
James Glymph, Supervisory Investigators
Michael Montgomery and Allen Johnson,
Auditor Kathryn Jefferies, Investigator Sabina
Frederick and OIO Coordinator Jessica
Jordan developed an online training module
for our annual integrity and ethics training.
Allen Johnson, with the assistance of Jim
Snight from the OCIO, also developed online
access for employees to complete their
incumbent background investigations.
During the time away from the office we've
had some "virtual happy hours". It was great
to see everyone and check in on how everyone was doing. Kudos to Jessica Jordan for
keeping us connected. *
FALL 2020 | 13
The Bottom Line - Fall 2020

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