You have just taken over an administrative unit assisting the Dean of science in an elite school. Among your other duties, you are responsible for payroll, HR interface and purchasing.

The situation that exists right now is:

• A Payroll Clerk handles all payroll with 25 years of experience at the same job. He does all input, and follow-up and deals with individual issues within the faculty. He is well-regarded. He prefers to work on his own. He is diligent, even taking vacations to ensure that the payroll inputs are done by him on time. He signs off the payroll and deals with problems as they arise.
• You have one Accounting Clerk, with only 21 months experience. he is responsible for all cash receipts, funds transfers, billings, budget adjustments and error corrections. he provides no reports as they are not seen as needed by the Dean or Associates. School Finance provides budget performance data. Your predecessor had delegated full signing authority for purchases and budget transfer.

Both employees are well thought of. Even though problems arise, they seem to be handled well. Is there a problem here? What would you do in these circumstances?

• Is there a problem here? If so, what is it?
• What are the risks posed by this situation and how significant are they?
• What must change or be implemented?
• Who must change it?
• How do we know that things have been put to right?