scholarly journals Tackling practical issues in fraud control: a practice-based study

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ach Maulidi ◽  
Jake Ansell
Keyword(s):  
Internal Control ◽  
White Collar Crime ◽  
Warning Sign ◽  
Financial Statement Fraud ◽  
Fraud Prevention ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Internal Auditors ◽  
Occupational Fraud ◽  
Top Managers

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a warning sign for fraud studies in developing occupational fraud deterrent, and offer possible solution to deal with it. Design/methodology/approach This study was conducted in one of regencies in Indonesia. The authors interviewed nine top managers across local agencies and four senior local government internal auditors. The people involved have formal and informal networks with a regent who has been arrested by Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission, because of white-collar crime syndicates, when running governmental systems. Findings While many approaches to fraud mitigation have been proposed, organisations in practice particularly in the public sector find it hard to implement successful methods to understand, detect and prevent fraud. In practice, this occurs due to simplified assumption on or multiplicity of overlapping fraud concepts. There is also a lack of appreciation of impact of organisational dynamics which facilitates fraud. Behavioural and political issues within an organisation need to be addressed when proposing fraud prevention. The study emphasises that it is too naïve to offer internal control as one-size-fits-all fraud prevention. For practitioners, corrupt behaviour tends to be the most challenging part, compared to other fraud schemes such as asset misappropriation and financial statement fraud. In this paper, the authors urge organisation to adapt a more systematic approach, involving across governmental anti-corruption agencies and civil society actors. This may be facilitated through communication among those parties, including a sound whistleblowing system. Then, organisation also should consider preventive measures that go beyond from administrative or technical internal controls. Originality/value The results may give new directions for designing fraud prevention.

Corruption as distinct crime: the need to reconceptualise internal control on controlling bureaucratic occupational fraud

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ach Maulidi ◽  
Jake Ansell
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Internal Control ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Internal Controls ◽  
Financial Statement Fraud ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Occupational Fraud ◽  
Asset Protection ◽  
Control Framework

Purpose The purpose of this study is to provide theoretical guidance that enables local governments to deal with occupational fraud. Design/methodology/approach The quantitative approach is used to examine the efficacy of the Committee of Sponsoring Organisations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) internal control framework in tackling occupational fraud in local government. To achieve the goals, the authors performed a survey of the Indonesian auditor institutions. Findings It is not appropriate to argue that all types of local government fraud can be deterred by a single internal control. The study suggests that COSO internal controls are not effective for dealing with corruption cases. However, the authors do find the efficacy of those controls are obvious for controlling asset misappropriation and financial statement fraud. This result indicates that if the COSO internal control framework is only designed for routine financial control and asset protection, it significantly and negatively influences its efficacy to deal with occupational fraud. This study has both theoretical and managerial implications, discussed separately. Originality/value In the field of prevention, the authors cannot make generalised theories and approaches for dealing with occupational fraud. Whilst previous authors have offered fraud deterrents in terms of internal controls, they have failed to realise the need to understand their effectiveness for particular forms of fraud. This paper sheds light on the effectiveness of internal controls in achieving their goals. This has both practical applications and stimulates theoretical insights.

Organizational identity, professional identity salience and internal auditors’ assessments of the severity of internal control concerns

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Burt ◽  
Theresa Libby
Keyword(s):  
Professional Identity ◽  
Internal Control ◽  
Organizational Identity ◽  
Internal Audit ◽  
Identity Salience ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Internal Auditors ◽  
Internal Control Weaknesses ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Benefits And Costs

Purpose This paper aims to examine whether increasing the salience of the internal auditor’s professional identity, defined by the expectations of their professional group, increases internal auditors’ judgments of the severity of internal control concerns when their organizational identity is high. Design/methodology/approach This paper tests the hypothesis using a laboratory experiment with internal auditors as participants. Findings The results support the hypothesis that professional identity salience moderates the relation between organizational identity and the assessed severity of identified internal control weaknesses. Increasing the salience of professional identity results in a more severe assessment of identified internal control weaknesses when organizational identity is high than when it is low. Originality/value Prior research in the lab and in the field provides mixed results about the impact of organizational identity on internal auditors’ judgments of the severity of identified internal control concerns. This paper contributes to the discussion on this issue. In addition, the results have implications for the debate about the benefits and costs of in-house versus out-sourced internal audit functions.

The patterns of the numbers used in occupational fraud schemes

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 606-626 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark J. Nigrini
Keyword(s):  
Internal Control ◽  
Classification Scheme ◽  
Fraud Detection ◽  
Financial Statement ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Papers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Court Records ◽  
Occupational Fraud ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This study aims to classify the numbers used in recent financial statement, corruption and asset misappropriation fraud schemes in such a way that these classes can be used to design effective proactive analytics-based fraud detection tests. Design/methodology/approach The data sources for the classification scheme include the court records of fraud prosecutions, investigative reports and research papers related to fraud cases. Findings Fraudulent numbers are most often amounts that are round, have a strong period-over-period growth, are just above or below internal control thresholds or other targets, are deviations from Benford’s Law, are purposeful duplicates of authentic transactions, are outliers due to being excessively large and are excessively rounded up or down. The study includes several examples of fraudulent numbers. Research limitations/implications The fraudulent number types are based on a sample of fraud-related court documents, and the sample might not be representative of the population of detected and undetected frauds. Further research is needed into the detection of corruption/bribery schemes. Practical implications The results are important for auditors and forensic accountants running proactive fraud detection tests. The discussions emphasize that the analysis should include refining and rerunning the tests, and then using groupings and filtering to deal with false positives. The importance of an effective audit of the notable transactions is stressed in the concluding section. Originality/value The study is an original in-depth coverage of the patterns found in fraudulent numbers. The discussion sections review implementation issues and considerations for future research.

Can internal audit functions improve firm operational efficiency? Evidence from China

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (8) ◽  
pp. 1167-1188
Author(s):  
Ying Chen ◽  
Bin Lin ◽  
Lizhen Lu ◽  
Gaoguang Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Internal Control ◽  
Internal Audit ◽  
Operational Efficiency ◽  
Alternative Measure ◽  
Maturity Model ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Internal Auditors ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of internal audit function (IAF) quality on the operational efficiency of Chinese firms. Design/methodology/approach The authors use regression models with a sample of Chinese listed companies to test their research hypotheses. Findings The authors find that IAF quality is positively associated with firm operational efficiency. The result is unchanged after correcting for endogeneity via the instrumental variable method and using an alternative measure of firm operational efficiency. The authors show that IAF competence improves firm operational efficiency, but the relationship between IAF independence and firm operational efficiency is insignificant. Additionally, they find that IAF quality can only significantly improve firm operational efficiency in the presence of effective corporate governance at the firm level and strong institutions at the province level. Using path analysis, the authors find that an IAF can improve firm operational efficiency directly or indirectly by promoting firm internal control quality. Practical implications The findings of this study suggest the need for a balance between IAF competence and independence to achieve the goals of IAF. Additionally, the authors study suggests that the effectiveness of IAF is contingent on corporate governance and market-based institutions. Originality/value The study’s findings contribute to the burgeoning literature on the relationship between IAF and firm operational performance and deepen the authors’ understanding of the role of IAF in an emerging economy whose government plays a major role in promoting and enforcing internal audits. The study also empirically support the Internal Audit Governance Maturity Model proposed by the Institute of Internal Auditors.

Stealing from the boss: who is looking?

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 613-623
Author(s):  
Peter John Lenz ◽  
Adam Graycar
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
White Collar Crime ◽  
Listed Company ◽  
White Collar ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Corporate Fraud ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Occupational Fraud ◽  
And Control

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discover organisational governance lessons that emerge from the unique facts and characteristics of one significant corporate fraud in Australia. Design/methodology/approach Data were triangulated between a primary loss adjustment file with multiple commercial and legal secondary sources. The data were analysed and conclusions were inductively drawn as part of a master’s degree research project. Findings White-collar crime takes many forms but it is rare for a medium-sized ASX listed company to be defrauded of Aus$22 m without anybody noticing. Narrative findings reveal the dynamics of the fraud and the weaknesses in corporate governance. This paper outlines the processes of detection and control. It provides several lessons for organisational governance that could prevent similar occupational frauds in the future. Research limitation/implications This unique fraud case has facts which are not necessarily typical of fraud in general. Anonymity in the case seeks to preserve the identities of the parties, but may in fact limit the potential for transparent discussion. Social implications While detecting and investigating occupational fraud has benefits for practitioners and commentators, there are extensive direct and indirect social costs associated with this case. Originality/value The value of this case lies in revealing details of how a significant fraud was perpetrated so that fraud investigators, accountancy professionals, academics and students can benefit from lessons learned.

The escalating relevance of internal auditing as anti-fraud control

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 322-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans-Ulrich Westhausen
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Data ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Positive Trend ◽  
Internal Auditing ◽  
Financial Statement Fraud ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Internal Auditors ◽  
Critical Success ◽  
Third Line

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss critical success factors for the enormous development that internal auditing (IA) as “third line of defense” (IIA, 2016) and one of the strongest anti-fraud controls has reached within the past decades. Additionally, weaknesses of IA are identified and evaluated to allow further improvement. Design/methodology/approach The anti-fraud requirements stipulated in the “International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing” are confronted with empirical data about the current situation of the IA as anti-fraud control. The empirical data were extracted from global sources such as “Fraud Reports” (Association of Certified Fraud Examiners – ACFE) and “common body of knowledge (CBOK)” studies. The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA). Findings Over the years, IA has been continuously increasing its auditing quality and effectiveness with new analytical methods, specialized software tools and professional certifications. But all these efforts have hardly been reflected in statistical or research data, especially not in the listing of the top sources of fraud detection. The “ACFE-Fraud Report 2016” revealed that IA is now – for the first time ever – second among the initial detections of occupational frauds (financial statement fraud, corruption and asset misappropriation) worldwide. This positive trend of global anti-fraud auditing was probably no “one-hit wonder”, but a result of a lengthy process of professionalization of IA. Originality/value It is hoped that this paper will facilitate the discussion about the value that IA can add within an anti-fraud management system.

Revisiting employee fraud: gender, investigation outcomes and offender motivation

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 447-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Bonny ◽  
Sigi Goode ◽  
David Lacey
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
White Collar Crime ◽  
White Collar ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Male Offenders ◽  
Occupational Fraud ◽  
Background Population ◽  
White Collar Offenders ◽  
Workplace Setting ◽  
Employee Fraud

Purpose – This paper aims to present the findings of a study examining fraud in the workplace setting, principally in the Australasian context. Although prior research into occupational fraud is conceptually rich, there is a lack of empirical evidence of this important but elusive problem. Design/methodology/approach – Based on investigative data from 14 participating firms, the paper provides insights into the gender breakdowns and stated motivations of offenders. The paper also provides evidence of the number of investigations, interviews and reports to law enforcement in these firms. Findings – The study finds that genders are evenly balanced for most firms, with females significantly outnumbering males in banking firms. Self-imposed financial hardship was the most popular motivator. Of the number of admissions to wrongdoing, only half were subsequently reported to law enforcement. Research limitations/implications – Particularly complex or advanced types of occupational fraud may go unreported or undetected: as a result, the figures presented in this study may be incomplete. Reported figures are based largely on historical data provided by respondents, and the authors are unable to report accurate details of the respondent firms. This makes it difficult to determine the frequency of offending against the background population. Practical implications – Investigators should continue to look for changes in the life circumstances of their staff. Such changes will give an indication of instances of staff living beyond their means and the sudden financial pressures that can compel occupational fraud. Instead of trying to supervise staff to an impractical degree, managers and proprietors would be well advised to be alert to the kind of pressures that their staff might experience. Social implications – Social control and detection measures are likely to be easier to implement and less invasive than technical controls. The study provides additional pressure to update traditional conceptualisations of the male white collar offender. While male offenders were responsible for larger losses per case, females were more numerous in the summary offence data. Originality/value – Gaining insights into the problem of employee fraud and white collar crime is difficult. The authors’ contribution in this paper is to provide empirical insights into the makeup of white collar offenders, including insights on gender.

The impact of internal audit function characteristics on internal control quality

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 450-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Atef Oussii ◽  
Neila Boulila Taktak
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Internal Control ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Internal Audit ◽  
Audit Committees ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Internal Auditors ◽  
Control Quality ◽  
Internal Audit Function ◽  
The Impact

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the association between internal audit function (IAF) characteristics and internal control quality. Design/methodology/approach Using data gathered from 59 chief audit executives from Tunisian listed companies, this paper uses a regression model to examine research hypothesis related to the association between IAF characteristics and internal control quality. Findings The findings of the current study reveal that internal control quality is significantly and positively associated with IAF competence, internal audit quality control assurance level, follow-up process and audit committee’s involvement in reviewing the internal audit program and results. Practical implications The findings have significant implications for IAF wishing to enhance their effectiveness, by recognizing the impact of the IAF’s characteristics on internal control quality. The findings of this study also have significant implications for regulatory bodies who are concerned with the internal control quality, managers and audit committees who determine IAF investment, oversight IAF activities and assess internal auditors’ performance. Originality/value This study helps fill a gap in the extant literature where existing empirical evidence of how the IAF characteristics influences the quality of the financial reporting process in emerging markets is scant.

Auditing Corporate Governance Statements in Greece – the role of internal auditors

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 1007-1020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Koutoupis ◽  
Michail Pazarskis ◽  
George Drogalas
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Internal Control ◽  
Internal Audit ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Internal Auditors ◽  
Governance Practices ◽  
Laws And Regulations

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the role of internal audit with respect to Auditing Corporate Governance Statements based on a practical approach. Moreover, it examines the application of internal control best practices in the Athens publicly listed firms based on a series of related statements.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted all large and medium capitalization publicly listed companies via a research questionnaire which forms a basis of a descriptive research analysis. The methodology is based on the best worldwide acceptable practices as represented by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations internal control – integrated framework, as well as the relevant laws and regulations and best practices with respect to Corporate Governance Statements.FindingsThe research concludes that internal auditors limit their role in verifying compliance with the relevant laws and regulations rather than adopt a consulting role toward the improvement of the content and quality of Corporate Governance Statements information. Also, it contributes to the corporate governance research by verifying that the effectiveness of internal controls contributes to sound corporate governance practices.Practical implicationsInternal auditors depending on the organization they serve may adopt different roles regarding Corporate Governance Statements preparation, review and audit such as consultative which may add value to the quality of Corporate Governance Statements.Originality/valueIt is the first research regarding quality characteristics of the Corporate Governance Statements and the role of internal audit in Greece, and it provides the basis for further research among European Union countries.

scholarly journals Internal auditors’ quality as a mediation variable in fraud prevention in the government of Jambi Province

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-288
Author(s):  
Netty Herawaty ◽  
Haryadi Haryadi ◽  
Enggar Diah Puspa Arum ◽  
Sri Rahayu
Keyword(s):  
Control System ◽  
Internal Control ◽  
Main Tool ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Fraud Prevention ◽  
Internal Auditors ◽  
Internal Control System ◽  
The Government

This study aims at examining and analyzing the effect of the government internal control system and the role of internal auditors directly and indirectly on fraud prevention through the quality of internal auditors. This study uses primary data obtained from questionnaires distributed to examiners in 11 districts/municipalities within the province and representatives of the Jambi Province Financial and Development Supervisory Agency. Sampling was carried out on the entire population, namely auditors with the functional auditor position, amounting to 272. The samples processed were 225 people. SEM-PLS has been employed as the main tool of analysis.  The results showed that the government internal control system variable directly or indirectly affected fraud prevention. Meanwhile, the role of internal auditors does not directly affect fraud prevention. This variable affects fraud prevention through the mediating variable of the quality of the internal auditors as the quality of the internal auditors is said to be the full mediation.

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