We fraud examiners must be very circumspect about drawing conclusions. But who among us has not found him or herself in a discussion with a corporate counsel who wants a recommendation from us about how best to prevent the occurrence of a fraud in the future? In most situations, the conclusions from a well conducted examination should be self-evident and should not need to be pointed out in the report. If the conclusions are not obvious, the report might need to be clarified. Our job as fraud examiners is to obtain sufficient relevant and reliable evidence to determine the facts with a reasonable degree of forensic certainty. Assuming facts without obtaining sufficient relevant and reliable evidence is generally inappropriate.
Opinions regarding technical matters, however, are permitted if the fraud examiner is qualified as an expert in the matter being considered (many fraud examiners are certified not only as CFE’s but also as CPA’s, CIA’s or CISA’s). For example, a permissible expert opinion, and accompanying client requested recommendation, might address the relative adequacy of an entity’s internal controls. Another opinion (and accompanying follow-on recommendation) might discuss whether financial transactions conform to generally accepted accounting principles. So, recommended remedial measures to prevent future occurrences of similar frauds are also essentially opinions, but are acceptable in fraud examination reports.
Given that examiners should always be cautious in complying with client examination related requests for recommendations regarding future fraud prevention, there is no question that such well-considered recommendations can greatly strengthen any client’s fraud prevention program. But requested recommendations can also become a point of contention with management, as they may suggest additional procedures for staff or offend members of management if not presented sensitively and correctly. Therefore, examiners should take care to consider ways of follow-on communication with the various effected stakeholders as to how their recommendations will help fix gaps in fraud prevention and mitigate fraud risks. Management and the stakeholders themselves will have to evaluate whether the CFE’s recommendations being provided are worth the investment of time and resources required to implement them (cost vs. benefit).
Broadly, an examination recommendation (where included in the final report or not) is either a suggestion to fix an unacceptable scenario or a suggestion for improvement regarding a business process. At management’s request, fraud examination reports can provide recommendations to fix unacceptable fraud vulnerabilities because they are easy to identify and are less likely to be disputed by the business process owner. However, recommendations to fix gaps in a process only take the process to where it is expected to be and not where it ideally could be. The value of the fraud examiner’s solicited recommendation can lie not only in providing solutions to existing vulnerability issues but in instigating thought-provoking discussions. Recommendations also can include suggestions that can move the process, or the department being examined to the next level of anti-fraud efficiency. When recommendations aimed at future prevention improvements are included, examination reports can become an additional tool in shaping the strategic fraud prevention direction of the client being examined.
An examiner can shape requested recommendations for fraud prevention improvement using sources both inside and outside the client organization. Internal sources of recommendations require a tactful approach as process owners may not be inclined to share unbiased opinions with a contracted CFE, but here, corporate counsel can often smooth the way with a well-timed request for cooperation. External sources include research libraries maintained by the ACFE, AICPA and other professional organizations.
It’s a good practice, if you expect to receive a request for improvement recommendations from management, to jot down fraud prevention recommendation ideas as soon as they come to mind, even though they may or may not find a place in the final report. Even if examination testing does not result in a specific finding, the CFE may still recommend improvements to the general fraud prevention process.
If requested, the examiner should spend sufficient time brainstorming potential recommendations and choosing their wording carefully to ensure their audience has complete understanding. Client requested recommendations should be written simply and should:
–Address the root cause if a control deficiency is the basis of the fraud vulnerability;
–Address the business process rather than a specific person;
–Include bullets or numbering if describing a process fraud vulnerability that has several steps;
–Include more than one way of resolving an issue identified in the observation, if possible. For example, sometimes a short-term manual control is suggested as an immediate fix in addition to a recommended automated control that will involve considerable time to implement;
–Position the most important observation or fraud risk first and the rest in descending order of risk;
–Indicate a suggested priority of implementation based on the risk and the ease of implementation;
–Explain how the recommendation will mitigate the fraud risk or vulnerability in question;
–List any recommendations separately that do not link directly to an examination finding but seek to improve anti-fraud processes, policies, or systems.
The ACFE warns that recommendations, even if originally requested by client management, will go nowhere if they turn out to be unvalued by that management. Therefore, the process of obtaining management feedback on proposed anti-fraud recommendations is critical to make them practical. Ultimately, process owners may agree with a recommendation, agree with part of the recommendation, and agree in principle, but technological or personnel resource constraints won’t allow them to implement it. They also may choose to revisit the recommendation at a future date as the risk is not imminent or disagree with the recommendation because of varying perceptions of risk or mitigating controls.
It’s my experience that management in the public sector can be averse to recommendations because of public exposure of their reports. Therefore, CFEs should clearly state in their reports if their recommendations do not correspond to any examination findings but are simply suggested improvements. More proposed fraud prevention recommendations do not necessarily mean there are more faults with the process, and this should be communicated clearly to the process owners.
Management responses should be added to the recommendations with identified action items and implementation timelines whenever possible. Whatever management’s response, a recommendation should not be changed if the response tends to dilute the examiner’s objectivity and independence and becomes representative of management’s opinions and concerns. It is the examiner’s prerogative to provide recommendations that the client has requested, regardless of whether management agrees with them. Persuasive and open-minded discussions with the appropriate levels of client management are important to achieving agreeable and implementable requested fraud prevention recommendations.
The journey from a client request for a fraud prevention recommendation to a final recommendation (whether included in the examination report or not) is complex and can be influenced by every stakeholder and constraint in the examination process, be it the overall posture of the organization toward change in general, its philosophy regarding fraud prevention, the scope of the individual fraud examination itself, views of the effected business process owner, experience and exposure of the examination staff, or available technology. However, CFEs understand that every thought may add value to the client’s fraud prevention program and deserves consideration by the examination team. The questions at the end of every examination should be, did this examination align with the organization’s anti-fraud strategy and direction? How does our examination compare with the quality of practice as seen elsewhere? And finally, to what degree have the fraud prevention recommendations we were asked to make added value?
Comments are closed.