Foreign Influence – How Internal Audit Can Help Address Concerns and Risks on Campus

Title: Foreign Influence – How Internal Audit Can Help Address Concerns and
Risks on Campus
Date: Thursday, February 20, 2020 
Time: 1:00 - 2:00 pm Eastern
Presenter:  ACUA and Baker Tilly
Speakers: Ashley Deihr, Partner, Baker Tilly; Brynn Tomlinson, Manager, Baker Tilly

Field of Study: Auditing
Location: Virtual
Type of Delivery Method: Group-internet-based
Prerequisite:  None
Advanced Preparation: None
CPE Credit: 1 Credit
Cost: None

In today’s global age, your institution likely benefits from foreign faculty and researchers on campus, funding from foreign governments or entities, and international research collaborations. However, recent focus on the threat of foreign influence to U.S. national security has resulted in scrutiny of U.S. academic institutions, including concerns over theft of intellectual property, both through diversion from the peer review process and through the transfer of research results and data to foreign entities.
 As part of this focus, your institution may have received information requests from a funding agency, heard that certain agencies may restrict your funding or even had a visit from the FBI! How do you, as internal audit, know how to help?
 
This webinar will outline concrete ways that internal audit can serve as a partner to assist with institutional response to the risks of foreign influence on campus, exploring how internal audit may be able to:

1. Help identify, assess, and communicate risks.
2. Perform targeted reviews of high-risk areas or processes to provide assurance that controls are operating effectively.
3. Perform continuous monitoring activities to help identify potential red flags.

• Department of Education Section 117 reporting requirements on foreign gifts/contracts
• Federal agency disclosure requirements on foreign sources of support (e.g., National Institutes of Health, Department of Energy)
• Intersection with conflicts of interest considerations
• Risks related to foreign travel
• Risks related to visiting scholars and foreign visitors to campus
• Intersection with export controls considerations
• Risks related to foreign talent programs (e.g., China’s “Thousand Talents Program”)