Website Fraud Manual Employee Embezzlement 2016
Part 3 of our ongoing series. In cooperation with the (NACBA) conducted a survey to determine the extent to which churches are attempting to address the problem of church fraud. We asked them to respond to this statement: Our church has established a formal program for reporting fraudulent activities. In its 2010 Report to the Nations, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners revealed that 40% of fraud cases were initially detected by anonymous tips. Half of the tips came from employees.
Approximately two-thirds of these cases were communicated through the entity’s fraud hotline. This data is not inconsistent with prior years’ findings. In fact, during one year a whopping 60% of detected fraud was discovered by the combination of tips and/or by accident! In our survey, we learned that 59% of the churches responded reported having no mechanism for employees, members, and vendors to report suspected improper behavior. The use of anonymous hotlines, usually found on an entity’s website, has been quite successful in the corporate and government environments. Elementary statistics 11 solutions manual. However, this is a tough sell in the church environment as it seems distasteful to most people involved in church.
And that includes me I have been (and remain) reluctant to recommend to my church clients taking such a step. However, one solution I have seen, that may be a good middle-ground is to outsource this function. There are third parties who provide this service by making available a toll-free phone line and a web address.
Because confidentiality is crucial, all reports go directly to the third party and bypass any nosy people along the way. As part of the church’s whistleblowers policy (which I hope your church has) a description of the third party providing these services and the processes to be followed should be included in the church personnel manual. What do you think about this idea?
. An employee who refuses to take vacation (afraid that theft will be detected by replacement). An employee who continually works overtime. An employee who wants to take work home.
Excessive personal spending (new cars, trips) by an employee whose income can't support these extravagances. The employee may be re-selling items or just enjoying 'the good life' at your expense. disappearing too quickly.
Extravagant expenses for employee travel. Employees who have close relationships with vendors. Keep an eye out for employees who often lunch with vendors or who are related to independent contractors who do work for your business. Deposit daily and reconcile monthly. Leaving cash sitting around is too tempting for some employees, and reconciling the bank statement each month helps you catch irregularities sooner rather than later.
Separate financial duties of employees. For example, the employee who writes the checks should not be the employee who reconciles the bank statement.
Employee Embezzlement Cases
Keep track of. The money in a cash drawer can prove too tempting for some employees. Require that all petty cash transactions have a petty cash slip or log to support them, and require two signatures on petty cash refill checks.