For the university, the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) promotes a culture of compliance, research integrity, and high quality research within the university community. This is accomplished through consultation and educational programs for all researchers. ORI facilitates University research, teaching and public service programs by providing oversight and coordination of research compliance areas involving human subjects, animals, recombinant DNA, hazardous agents, radiation safety, environmental concerns, conflict of interest and research misconduct.
A Compliance Program is an enterprise-wide program to coordinate, manage and monitor internal and external risks associated with regulatory compliance. It builds on the existing university structures and improves the coordination, dissemination and communication of compliance information and identifies gaps in compliance. The program empowers individuals to report instances of noncompliance using a variety of measures: faculty oversight, compliance and safety staff periodic review, facilities personnel, students, and concerned individuals.
The program changes our compliance paradigm from detect/correct to anticipate/ prevent. [back to top]
The foremost goal of the university’s Compliance Program is to maintain our reputation for integrity and high standards in the educational and business community. In today’s world of increasing government rules and regulations involving research, information security, human resources, safety, animal care and use, biosafety, radiation safety, and environmental issues, it would be easy to violate a law or regulation and tarnish our reputation. The program helps protect the university from regulatory errors, omissions and failures by improving communication and information. Noncompliance, at other major universities, has resulted in millions of dollars in settlements of government lawsuits and tarnished reputations.
If an inadvertent violation does occur, the Compliance Program is also needed to protect the university from severe criminal and civil penalties. Courts and prosecutors must make their choice of prosecution, settlement and the size of fines based on the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. While we expect and hope never to face a government civil or criminal suit, the existence of a formal voluntary Compliance Program shows the government that the university has taken its compliance responsibility seriously and has communicated this to the campus. The existence of a formal Compliance Program allows the courts to reduce the fines and penalties under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. [back to top]
The benefits of a compliance program are improved information and communications, as well as better monitoring of compliance risks. The program provides the campus with better communication of regulatory compliance issues as well as improved monitoring of regulatory issues. The centralization of all university policies improves the access, reliability and communications of those policies. Our first line of compliance rests with the faculty and their students involved in research. On a day-to-day basis, compliance and safety staff routinely interact with faculty and their students in the course of research activities. When issues arise, corrections can be made immediately without the need for reporting. The Hot Line (http://www.tnwinc.com/GASTATE/) also provides students, faculty and staff with an opportunity to communicate their concerns while staying anonymous. [back to top]
Compliance issues relate to situations, activities and transactions that could potentially violate federal, state, or local laws and regulations, or violate Georgia State’s policies and procedures. Examples include violations of regulations associated with research, fire safety, conflict of interest, information security, and health/safety issues, environmental concerns, etc. This is not meant to be a complete list but rather examples of non-compliance issues.
Elements of the compliance program include:
The university is committed to conducting business ethically, and in compliance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. The Office of Research Integrity with the support of the university community is an effective way to help the university address potential violations of laws, regulations and university policies. [back to top]
If noncompliance with university policies becomes a recurring issue, the matter will be reported in writing to the Office of Research Integrity for handling. Failure to comply with university policies will result in the issuance of a letter of warning to the faculty member with a copy sent to the chair of the department. Repeated failures can result in the suspension of the faculty member’s funding and/or laboratory activities by the vice president of research until permanent corrective actions are taken and maintained. [back to top]