Rising Occupational Fraud Hits Employee Morale
Occupational fraud has been defined as fraud that is committed by employees
, managers and company owners where the victim of fraud is the organization and its employees. Experts say that occupational fraud is on the rise and that the economic downturn might be the primarily cause for it.
A report by the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada says workplace fraud in Canada cost small and medium enterprises (SMEs) an estimated at $3.2 billion in 2010. SMEs in Canada, including Vancouver are highly vulnerable to workplace fraud. Such frauds and embezzlement are especially being committed by company accountant in Vancouver.
The risk of workplace fraud is almost certain to rise as economic growth slows and more employees experience financial difficulties, says Rock Lefebvre, CGA-Canadas Vice-President of Research and Standards and co-author of the report. Its a genuine threat and companies need to be vigilant. It may be a case of pay now, for prevention, detection and response measures, or quite possibly pay later.
In Vancouver, due to the economic slowdown, workplace frauds are being committed by employees at all levels of the organization but frauds especially by accountant in Vancouver are on the rise. The most common forms of fraud are misappropriation of inventory or assets and cash.
This makes for easy premises for committing frauds by accountants. Besides financial losses, occupational fraud leads to a negative impact on employee morale. This is a direct repercussion of organizations being dealt damaging blows in the form of tainted reputations, strained business relationships with clients and customers dip in company valuation and public trust. While certain victimized companies in Vancouver have made changes in policies related to hiring of accountants, employee retention and addressing fraud accountants, this issue needs to be addressed more proactively and with a lot more vigor. Some of the measures recommended for SMEs to address fraud are:
Widespread Organizational Awareness: There should be an easy mechanism to report fraud. This will increases the sense of responsibility amongst employees.
Preventive Measures: Employees should be taught to identify red alerts and other warning signs. There usually are giveaways before a fraud is committed by accountants. Screening of employees both old and new, monitoring of assets, audits and anti-fraud training programs should comprise of the preventive measures.
Fraud Response Plan: In cases where a workplace fraud has already happened, organizations should be equipped with a response mechanism. Amongst other things, this should have provisions for learning from the fraud incident.
Promote Ethical Culture: Organizations should have a clear mission statement reflecting focus on work ethics. Policies should be transparent and an ethical work culture should be promoted. Companys policy should include a well-defined Whistleblower policy and internal audit process.
There are many fraud investigative firms that conduct forensic accounting, research and investigative audits of criminal fraudulent accountant in Vancouver and thus help victims recover lost assets. Educational programs related to occupational fraud and ethics have already been established and have gained a lot of popularity. The Vancouver Island University has a Fraud & Ethics Research & Education Center in the Faculty of Management.
This has stakeholders that are individuals, managers, professional associates and public and private organizations that want to reduce fraud risks effectively and promote an ethical work culture; and forensic accountants, fraud investigators, lawyers and law enforcers that are in pursuit of enhanced knowledge of fraud prevention, detection and resolution.
by: Stella Richard
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