We held a webinar on May 25, 2021, on how Ghanaian SMEs can prevent occupational fraud. Here is summary of the discussion.
- Ghanaian SMEs face increasing risk of occupational fraud because of our current business and economic environment.
- Occupational fraud is using one’s occupation to make personal gains through deliberate misuse or misapplication of the company’s resources.
- There are three types of fraud:
- Theft–stealing assets from the business.
- Misuse of company assets like company vehicles, computers, and office supplies for personal gain.
- Financial Statement Fraud – manipulating the financial statements for financial gains. This fraud is usually carried out the management.
- Tips for preventing occupational fraud:
- Do not let one employee approve transactions, hold the asset, and keep the keep the books of account.
- Implement a hiring process that involves background and reference checks, criminal record checks. Also make leave mandatory for all staff.
- Ensure that you implement key controls like approvals, verification, reconciliations, and supervision in your business.
- You must also implement controls over your critical assets such as your bank account, cash from sales, petty cash, and inventory.
- Some questions we got during the webinar are:
- How do I prevent fraud from external parties?
- How do I manage the occurrence of fraud in the organization when the owner of the business and the senior staff approve transactions and hold assets?
- What happens when a senior member of the business who is the sole signatory to the bank account?
Watch the full webinar here.
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