...4 | Page No.: 181-189 | | Impact of Internal Control System in Banking Sector in Nigeria | | Olaoye Clement Olatunji | | Abstract: The Central Bank of Nigeria reported that the backward development in Nigeria was attributable to weaknesses in the internal control systems of the banks. This has clearly pointed out the picture of how fraud has been penetrated in the financial strength of Nigerian Banks. In a nut-shell, the damage which this menace, called fraud has done to the banks is innumerable and needs urgent attention. Therefore, the attempt to put an end to this economic degradation, gave rise to the topic of this research study the impact of internal control in the banking sector in Nigeria with Wema Bank of Nigeria PLC as a case study. However, this study is aimed at verifying the conception that an effective and efficient internal control system is the best control measure for preventing and detecting fraud, especially in the banking sector. Data captured for this study, were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistical methods. The descriptive analysis involves the use of percentages, tabulation and graphical presentation. While the inferential statistical method involved the use of the chi-square. The functions of fraud prevention, detection and control are interwoven, as the three works together to eliminate fraud and fraudulent tendencies. Therefore, internal control is highly significant in fraud detection and preventions in banking sector...
Words: 5433 - Pages: 22
...INTRODUCTION Internal control, the strength of every organization, has become of paramount importance today in Nigerian banks. The reason being that the control systems in any organization is a pillar for an efficient accounting system. The need for the internal control systems in the organizations, especially banks, cannot be undermined, due to the fact that the banking sector, which has a crucial role to play in the economic development of a nation is now being characterized by macro economic instability, slow growth in real economic activities, corruption and the risk of fraud. Fraud, which is the major reason for setting up on internal control system, has become a great pain in the neck of many Nigerian bank managers. It has also become an unfortunate staple in Nigeria’s international reputation. Fraud is really eating deep into the Nigerian banking system and that any bank with a weak internal control system, is dangerously exposed to bank fraud. The CBN reported that cases of attempted fraud and forgery in banks, as at half-year 2007 have surpassed what was recorded for the whole year 2006. The CBN half-year report for 2007, revealed a total of 741 cases of attempted fraud and forgery, involving 5.4 billion, $35,406.1, 150 Euros were reported as at June, 2007. In 2006, 1,193 cases were reported involving 4.6 billion, $1.8 million and 14,389.7 pound sterling. The CBN also reported that the backward development was attributable to weaknesses in the internal control systems...
Words: 5108 - Pages: 21
...The case study states that the perpetrator had the ability to override internal controls by breaking into other employees computers and create fraudulent invoices and fictitious payables to forge checks payable to her own name. According to the 2010 Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse the perpetrator committed fraud by an asset misappropriation scheme in which the perpetrator steals or misuses an organization’s resources. Asset misappropriation is broken down into some sub-schemes like skimming, cash larceny, billing, expense reimbursement, check tampering. She was a well-trusted employee and even had previously caught other employees involved in embezzlement and frauds. So there was no reason to expect her of committing a fraud, costing the Company $204,000.00. In the Reports to the Nations study, the average organization annually loses were 5 % of its revenues due to fraud. This is an important topic and individuals have been committing these acts for as long as records have been kept. It is important to implement fraud programs to help reduce or eliminate fraud loses. One of the major things the Company could do to help prevent any future fraudulent activities is start educating the employees on preventing and detecting fraud. Employees should be trained in what constitutes fraud, how it hurts everyone in the company and how to report any questionable activities. According to the Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse organizations...
Words: 948 - Pages: 4
...Data Mining for Fraud Detection: Toward an Improvement on Internal Control Systems? Mieke Jans, Nadine Lybaert, Koen Vanhoof Abstract Fraud is a million dollar business and it’s increasing every year. The numbers are shocking, all the more because over one third of all frauds are detected by ’chance’ means. The second best detection method is internal control. As a result, it would be advisable to search for improvement of internal control systems. Taking into consideration the promising success stories of companies selling data mining software, along with the positive results of research in this area, we evaluate the use of data mining techniques for the purpose of fraud detection. Are we talking about real success stories, or salesmanship? For answering this, first a theoretical background is given about fraud, internal control, data mining and supervised versus unsupervised learning. Starting from this background, it is interesting to investigate the use of data mining techniques for detection of asset misappropriation, starting from unsupervised data. In this study, procurement fraud stands as an example of asset misappropriation. Data are provided by an international service-sector company. After mapping out the purchasing process, ’hot spots’ are identified, resulting in a series of known frauds and unknown frauds as object of the study. 1 Introduction Fraud is a million dollar business and it is increasing every year. ”45% of companies worldwide have fallen victim...
Words: 6259 - Pages: 26
...Case Study: HOW A CFO PLOWED HIMSELF UNDER By Recitta Askew ACCT217 July 26, 2014 Fraud Theory and Prevention is getting a lot of attention these days, however preventing fraud and understanding fraud continues to puzzle corporations and is the focus of many studies and reasons why many internal controls are in place today. As an example Dr. Donald Cressey a fraud expert developed what is known as the Fraud Triangle Theory which essentially states that three elements must be present in order for fraud to occur and those are, Motive, Opportunity and Rationalization. This theory demonstrates how a highly regarded bank CFO committed fraud because all three critical elements were present which enabled him to embezzle $150,000. So in order to prevent fraud we must first understand how an individual such as Mr. McKinley can go from being a law abiding citizen to a white collar criminal. Therefore fraud prevention begins with understanding the Fraud Triangle, the importance of good internal controls and the role of external auditors and how they are all connected. First according to the Fraud Triangle “Motive is the reason people commit fraud…It is the driving force”. (Biegelman & Bartow, 2006, p. 32). In McKinley’s case the motive and driving force appears to have been the emotion of humiliation, after all he was a respectable church going family man, CPA and highly respected bank CFO. Therefore the driving force of protecting his image coupled with the...
Words: 1147 - Pages: 5
...REPORT TO THE NATIONS O N O C C U PAT I O N A L F R A U D A N D A B U S E 2012 GLOBAL FRAUD STUDY Letter from the President & CEO More than 15 years ago, the ACFE’s founder and Chairman, Dr. Joseph T. Wells, CFE, CPA, conceptualized a groundbreaking research project to study the costs, methodologies and perpetrators of fraud within organizations. The result was the 1996 publication of the ACFE’s first Report to the Nation on Occupational Fraud and Abuse. Since then, we have released six additional Reports that have each expanded our knowledge and understanding of the tremendous financial impact occupational fraud and abuse has on businesses and organizations. We are proud to say that the information contained in the original Report and its successors has become the most authoritative and widely quoted body of research on occupational fraud. The data presented in our 2012 Report is based on 1,388 cases of occupational fraud that were reported by the Certified Fraud Examiners (CFEs) who investigated them. These offenses occurred in nearly 100 countries on six continents, offering readers a view into the global nature of occupational fraud. As in previous years, what is perhaps most striking about the data we gathered is how consistent the patterns of fraud are around the globe and over time. We believe this consistency reaffirms the value of our research efforts and the reliability of our findings as truly representative of the characteristics of occupational fraudsters...
Words: 5423 - Pages: 22
...Case Study 1 – And the Fraud Continues Heidi Janis Casazza Strayer University ACC/571 Dr. Timothy Franklin Deleanor Brown January 27, 2013 Case Study 1 – And the Fraud Continues Since the turn of the century, many financial scandals have been discovered, such as MCI Communications Corporation (MCI). Financial scandals can be minimized by the use of effective internal controls. According to Chao and Foote, effective internal controls reasonably prevent material misstatements in financial reporting and fraud while weak internal controls have the opposite effect (2012). Extensive research about the MCI’s financial scandal has provided proof that Chao and Foote’s analogy of internal controls is correct. Ultimately, the problems MCI had were caused by a weakness in internal controls, which causes MCI to be a prime example of how weak internal controls can be disastrous and lead to the bankruptcy of a company. The Situation That Led to MCI’s Downfall MCI Communications Corporation (MCI) was a communication company that primarily dealt with resellers, which means MCI would sell or lease time to other communication carriers who in turn resold the time to other businesses and consumers. According to Lyon and Tocco (2007), MCI’s revenue grew from about $240 million to about $650 million a month in account receivables. In addition, the growth in revenue caused the bad debt percentage to increase significantly in 1995 along with a significant increase in accounts receivable...
Words: 1313 - Pages: 6
...DEDICATION This work is dedicated to God Almighty the giver of all knowledge. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Words of mouth are not enough to express the level of my gratitude to God for his grace, mercy and for being a great providence to my life during the course of my study in school. All credit and accolades be to him alone… ABSTRACT This research work deals with internal audit as an aid to management. It aims at finding out the role of internal audit in management decision making in organizations. It is a survey research. Data were collected from primary and secondary sources which included using questionnaires, personal observations, text book, journal and internet. Sample of 92 were collected by random sample method. Three hypotheses were formulated and tested using Z-test statistics, while questionnaires were analyzed using simple percentages. We discovered among other things that internal audit assists management in managerial decisions. We recommended among other things that the auditors be trained in forensic accounting to enable them to be more effective in their duties. pg. 8 CHAPTER ONE INTROUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY. At the beginning of the century, most businesses are small and sole-operated. The owners/managers are overly involved with most of the decision making. As business grows in size and complexity, professional managers take position of the owners and the operators. Consequently, they rely heavily upon streams of accounting and statistical report which summarizes...
Words: 1576 - Pages: 7
...CASE 3 : Accounting Fraud at WolrdCom Table of Contents Introduction....................................................................................................................... 1 Question 1 .......................................................................................................................... 2 Question 2 .......................................................................................................................... 4 Question 3 .......................................................................................................................... 6 Question 4 ........................................................................................................................ 10 Question 5 ........................................................................................................................ 16 References........................................................................................................................ 24 BKAL 3063 Integrated Case Study 0 CASE 3 : Accounting Fraud at WolrdCom Introduction WorldCom, US second largest telecommunication company shocked the world by filing bankruptcy at 21 July 2002. The WorldCom filing surpassed Enron and became the largest bankruptcy filing in United States history. Due to its rapid growth, WorldCom is also heavily in debt as they finance the company growth with debt. The collapse of WorldCom did not just affect their employees, retailers, the government...
Words: 6350 - Pages: 26
...AIS Case #1: Chapter 3: Coupon Accounting #52 In order for a fraud to be perpetrated, three conditions must exist. According to Turner and Weickgenannt (2012), “known as the fraud triangle” (p. 80) they are conditions, incentive, opportunity, and rationalization to commit fraud. By understanding these conditions businesses will be able to create effective and quality internal controls system that will help prevent fraud and fraudulent financial reporting, such as the one presented in this case. Even so, with the best set of controls businesses are still susceptible to fraud. As I examined this case study concerning coupon accounting abuse I will answer questions pertaining to company controls, ways to prevent coupon abuse, parties who may be harmed, and the type of fraud presented in the case. a. Discuss whether the situation described can happen to a company with a good control environment. It is imperative for a company to have good internal control environment. Internal control is defined as, “policies and procedures designed to provide management with reasonable assurance that the company achieves its objectives and goals” (Arens, Elder & Beasley, 2012, p. 290). Thus, internal control ensures all business or organizational processes meet these demands. A company that has a good control environment will help deter fraud. According to Turner and Weickgenannt (2012), “The control environment sets the tone of an organization and influences the control consciousness...
Words: 919 - Pages: 4
...Corporate Social Responsibility and Governance (FINM024) Assessment 1 – Case Study Aim: The case study aims at testing students’ understanding of the role of corporate governance in today’s business, how to establish good corporate governance practices, how to maintain an effective internal control system and assess control risk, and how to protect the organisation against fraud. Instructions: Students are required to read the case carefully before attempting the questions. All sources used must be cited using the ‘Harvard Referencing Guide’ in order to avoid plagiarism. Students MUST structure their answers as required. Please try to avoid language and grammatical mistakes, writing incorrect answers, and writing more than what is needed. Please read the questions carefully before answering them. Academic Honesty: Plagiarism will not be tolerated and could lead to your failure, so please make sure to use your own words in answering the case and to cite all the sources used. Please refer to Harvard Referencing guide to understand how to properly cite the sources used. Deadline and Submission: The deadline for submission is 10th April, 2015. All submissions have to be via Turnitin on NILE. Any submissions via email will be automatically discarded without prior notice. Students are only allowed to submit their assignment once, so no draft submissions will be accepted. Late submissions will not be accepted. If there are circumstances beyond the student’s control that deprive...
Words: 2336 - Pages: 10
...Case Study 2 With deciding to go public; LJB Company would be required to follow the Sarbanes-Oxley Act; which stated that all public traded U. S. corporations are required to maintain an adequate system of internal control. As the President of the company it will be both your responsibility of the board of directors to make sure that the internal controls are reliable and effective. You must also hire an independent outside auditor to come in periodically to ensure the adequacy of the company’s internal control system. TO ensure that you will be set up to meet all the internal control requirements by the time LJB goes public, this report will list the requirements of internal control and state what your company is currently doing correct and that can help the company meet the internal control standards. Internal control is defines as all the related methods and measures adopted with an organization to safeguard its assets, enhance the reliability of its accounting records, increase efficiency of operations, and ensure compliance with laws and regulations. It has five primary components, a control environment, risk assessment, control activities, information and communication, and monitoring. These components are broken down further into six principles. These principles are establishment of responsibilities, segregation of duties, documentation procedures, physical controls, independent internal verification and human resource controls. By following the guidelines of these...
Words: 1111 - Pages: 5
...AN EVALUATION OF THE INTERNAL CONTROLS SYSTEM FOR CASH FOR THE CASE OF NAIROBI SMALL BUSINESSES BY CLEOPHAS MUSINGA A Management Research Project Submitted In Partial Fulfillment For The Requirements Of The Award Of Bachelor Of Commerce (BCOM), School Of Business, University Of Nairobi JULY, 2008 DECLARATION This research project is our own original work and has not been submitted for academic purposes in any institution of higher leaning. Name Number Sign CLEOPHAS MUSINGA D33/6646/05 ………………………….. This research project has been submitted for examination with my approval as the university supervisor Signed……………………………. Date…………………………………………. Mr. Abdulatif Essajee Lecturer University of Nairobi TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i CHAPTER ONE 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Background of the study 1 1.2 Statement of the problem 5 1.3 Objectives of the study 6 1.4 Research questions 6 1.5 Scope of the study 6 1.6 Justification of the study 7 CHAPTER TWO 9 LITERARURE REVIEW 9 2.1 Evolution of internal controls 9 2.2 Components of Internal Controls 12 2.4 Relationship between a firm’s age and internal control 18 2.6 Internal controls in small businesses 19 CHAPTER THREE 21 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 21 3.1 Research design 21 3.2 Population 21 3.3 Sample and Sampling Technique 21 3.4 Data collection methods 22 3.5 Data analysis 22 CHAPTER FOUR 23 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 23 4.1 Introduction...
Words: 9772 - Pages: 40
...Fraud Auditing and Different type of fraud Introduction Over the years, the role of auditors become increasingly important especially in a capitalist economy as the process of wealth creation and political stability depends heavily upon confidence in processes of accountability and how well the expected roles are being fulfilled. An auditor has the responsibility for the prevention, detection and reporting of fraud, other illegal acts and errors is one of the most controversial issues in auditing. The most frequently debated areas amongst auditors, politicians, media, regulators and the public is where the fraud is coming from and by whom. This disagreement has been especially tinted by the collapse of big corporations like Enron and WorldCom. The unforeseen fall of Enron and WorldCom traumatized the world as both of these companies received clean bills of health from their auditors immediately prior to their for bankruptcy. Type of fraud Fraud itself comprises a large variety of activities and includes bribery, political corruption, business and employee fraud, consumer theft; network hacking, bankruptcy and divorce fraud, and identity theft. Many find it helpful to separate between internal and external fraud. Internal fraud is usually found by internal auditors. In the Statement of Auditing Standards 99, it’s defines fraud as an intentional act that results in a material misstatement in financial statements. There are two types of fraud considered: misstatements arising...
Words: 2588 - Pages: 11
...Table of Contents Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………..1-2 Issues………………………………………………………………………………………………2 The Discovery of Fraud……………………………………………………………………..…..3-4 Corporate Governance of FCB……………………………………………………………………5 Auditor Dilemma……………………………………………………………………….……….5-7 Using the Fraud Triangle Model to analyze the situation in Flat Cargo Berhad……………..…8-9 Who is responsible in the fraud of Flat Cargo Berhad ……………………………………..…10-11 Prevention Measures for Fraud ……………………………………………………………….12-13 Detection Measures for Fraud…………………………………………………………...……14-15 Recommendation…………………………………………………………………….……….16-17 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………...……….18-19 References………………………………………………………………………………………..19 Introduction The case is related to one company known as Flat Cargo Berhad (FCB), FCB was one of the largest air freight companies in Malaysia which servicing several government linked companies including Freight Malaysia Berhad. FCB is a listed company and was registered as an investment holding company with several subsidiaries. Among its subsidiaries are FC Spare Sdn Bhd, Cargo Management Sdn Bhd, FCB (SPV) Ltd, Cargo Air Services Sdn Bhd and FC Air Ltd. FCB started its operations in 1997 with two aircrafts: a Boeing 737-200F and a Cessna Grand Caravan. FCB’s major shareholder in 1997 had been Bangor Berhad, which was part of a diversified international family owned conglomerate, the Miri Group. On September 2001 the company was listed in Bursa Malaysia. The...
Words: 5971 - Pages: 24
