Nearly two-thirds of corporate controllers feel pressure to “cook the books,” according to a new international survey, and many of them feel that misrepresenting their company’s performance is just part of their job. The survey, by FloQast, a provider of close management software for corporate accounting departments, found that 64 Read More
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has released a new set of professional standards on conducting internal audits that are intended to provide guidance to its members on issues that may emerge during the course of the audit process. The standards, titled “Basic Principles of Internal Audit” and Read More
The 2018 fiscal year was an active one for the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Whistleblower program. In fact, the agency received more tips and paid out more in rewards than in any year since the SEC Whistleblower Office opened its doors in 2011. In its 2018 annual report to Congress, Read More
It’s no secret that companies have been adopting a more data-centric approach to managing risk and compliance and to improving internal audit. They are installing fancy software packages and hiring data analytics experts to help them sift through oceans of valuable data to look for patterns and outliers. But some Read More
The Securities and Exchange Commission pursued an increased number of enforcement actions in fiscal year 2018 and fined companies and individuals nearly $4 billion in the same period. The SEC said in its annual report that total enforcement actions totaled 821, up 9 percent from 754 in fiscal 2017. Meanwhile, Read More
The U.S. Justice Department will put more consideration into whether or not a monitor is needed to oversee that a company is abiding by promises it makes in settlement agreements.
Most mid-size to large organizations rely on internal and external audits as a key preventative measure against fraud. The problem is, many CFOs assume that a routine financial audit will reveal financial anomalies that could be fraud. Unfortunately, quite the opposite is true. Audits almost never succeed at finding fraud: Read More
South African power company Eskom suspended its head of internal audit, Molefi Nkhabu, as it investigates a series of suspicious transactions that he signed off on. According to a statement from the company, the questionable transactions “contain inferences or conclusions which had the effect of exonerating certain previous Eskom executives Read More
Internal auditors, compliance officers, and other “lines of defense” professionals are in unique positions to spot fraud and wrongdoing at the companies where they work. In most cases it is enough to report the problems to senior management or to the board of directors in situations where senior executives may Read More
Here are five steps to conducting an expert fraud investigation, and five common investigation mistakes to avoid. When you are assigned by senior management, the audit committee, or your superior to head a team of professionals to conduct a fraud investigation, what do you do? You have two options: embrace Read More
