عرض العناصر حسب علامة : الرقابة الداخلية
الأربعاء, 22 سبتمبر 2021 21:17
العديد من جوانب الاحتيال في المشتريات
المشتريات هي واحدة من أهم وظائف الأعمال، والتأثير على الإستراتيجية والأداء التشغيلي وإدارة المخاطر. المدققون الداخليون هم لاعبون أساسيون في هذه العملية، حيث يوفرون ضمانًا بأن ممارسات الشراء تعزز الوصول والمنافسة والإنصاف.
معلومات إضافية
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المحتوى بالإنجليزية
Procurement is one of the most important functions of business, impacting strategy, operational performance, and risk management. Internal auditors are key players in the process, providing assurance that procurement practices foster access, competition, and fairness.
Internal auditors also have a responsibility to promptly identify and report deceptive activity, and provide recommendations that strengthen internal controls. Internal auditors must be alert to red flags for dishonest conduct in procurement activities that can lead to significant financial losses for the organization. Red flags can alert internal auditors to four common methods of procurement fraud and give them the foresight to make recommendations that prevent it in the future.
Contractor Collusion
To avoid competing with one another, or to inflate the price of goods and services, contractors in the same market will work together to circumvent a transparent and ethical bidding process. As a result, the procurement entity loses its right to fair, ethical, and competitive prices. Internal auditors should be aware of several types of collusion among contractors.
Complementary Bidding In an effort to influence the contract price and who it is awarded to, contractors intentionally submit false token bids in the procurement process that appear to be genuine. Token bids typically are too high to be accepted, appear to be competitive but do not meet other bidding requirements, or contain special terms and conditions known to be unacceptable to a potential buyer.
Bid Rotation Instead of bidding competitively, two or more contractors tacitly agree to submit tailored bids and conspire to alternate the business among themselves. Each contractor wins a portion of the total business.
For example, Suppliers A, B, and C are bidding on three separate contracts. They agree that A's bid will be the lowest on the first contract, B's will be the lowest on the second, and C's on the third. So, no one gets all three contracts, but each gets a share. Meanwhile, they may also plan their bids to raise the contract price artificially. Often, losing bidders are appointed as subcontractors by the winning contractor to tide over their cash flow while they wait for their winning bid.
Bid Suppression Bids are suppressed when two or more contractors enter into an unlawful agreement, and one or more conspirators abstain from bidding on proposals. They also may withdraw a previously submitted bid with the goal of getting the desired bid accepted.
Market Division Colluding contractors may divide the market according to various criteria, such as geographic area or different segments. Firms that meet the same criteria will not bid against each other, may submit complementary bids, or may rotate bids. Market division also can happen via shell companies used to submit fictitious bids. This allows the real companies to inflate prices because the fraudulent bids are designed to validate the higher price quoted by the real bidder.
When trying to determine this type of collusion, internal auditors may notice peculiar behavior from contractors, such as unqualified contractors consistently bidding high on each project while qualified contractors don't submit bids at all. The winning bidder uses the losing bidder as a subcontractor and losing bids are poorly prepared and designed to fail. In addition, prices fall when a new contractor enters the competition and there may be a pattern of conduct whereby the last party to submit a bid wins the contract.
Collusion Between Contractors and Buyer's Employees
A contractor or supplier may attempt to get an advantage in the bidding process by influencing the procuring company's staff with bribes, gifts, and hospitality. This results in a higher cost to the buyer through various inside schemes.
Need Recognition A procuring company employee who is in on the scheme may overestimate — quantitatively or qualitatively — the actual need of the product/service and convince his or her supervisor of the excessive need to get the procurement authorized.
Internal audit should be alert to some common red flags to identify likely collusion. For example, the needs assessment may be inadequately developed or inaccurately documented. It also is likely that no alternative supplier has been identified, resulting in continuous procurement from a single source. Specifications may be drawn up in a way that only particular suppliers or contractors can deliver, and purchases may be made without receiving reports. Auditors also may come across excessive inventory levels or large write-offs to justify excessive purchases.
Bid Tailoring In this situation, the corrupt employee manipulates specifications to suit a preferred contractor or supplier and eliminate competitors. Specifications may be too narrow to accommodate the preferred supplier, too broad so that an otherwise unqualified contractor is qualified, or vague so that bid specifications are omitted to allow the preferred contractor to raise the price through contract amendments.
Some red flags include weak control over the bidding process, one or few bid responses to invitations, a contract not being rebid despite fewer than the minimum bidders, or a high number of competitive awards going to one supplier. It also is likely that the request for bid submissions does not provide clear submission information, or the specifications for the type of goods/services being procured are too narrow or broad. Bid tailoring often is accompanied by a large number of change orders or variations after the order is placed.
Manipulating Bids Corrupt employees may tamper with bids to favor particular contractors or suppliers by using obscure publications to publish bid solicitations, opening bids prematurely, extending bid opening dates without justification, discarding or losing a bid, accepting delayed bids, falsifying bid registers, or altering bids received. Often, they limit the time for submitting bids so that only those with advance notice have time to prepare and submit. Unethical employees may even void bids for unsubstantiated, frivolous errors in specification or for other false, arbitrary, or personal reasons.
Bid Splitting In this case, employees break a large project into several small projects that fall below the mandatory bidding threshold and award some or all of the component jobs to a contractor or supplier with whom they are conspiring. Internal auditors should be alert for multiple, similar, or identical procurement from the same party, unjustified split procurements in amounts that are just under the upper-level review or competitive bidding threshold, or sequential procurements just under the upper-level review or competitive bidding threshold. This may be followed by change order abuse.
Unjustified Sole-source Procurements Dishonest employees may use noncompetitive procurement to exclude competition and steer contracts toward particular vendors. Justification for sole-source contracting occurs when the product is available from only the single source, when exigent circumstances preclude competitive solicitation, or when solicitation is deemed inadequate after a reasonable search.
Telltale signs of this collusion include frequent use of sole-source procurement contracts — often to the same supplier — or requests for sole-source procurements when there is an available pool of contractors to compete for the project. Often, the procuring staff does not keep accurate minutes of pre-bid meetings or does not obtain the required review for sole source justification. Again, false statements may be made to justify noncompetitive procurements or justifications may be approved by employees without authority.
Negotiated Contract Pricing Schemes
Negotiated contracts are more common in circumstances where conditions are not conducive to competitive, sealed bidding. It is a contracting method that permits negotiations between the procurement entity and potential contractors. In negotiated contracting, potential contractors submit cost or pricing data, such as vendor quotes or already-attained discounts. Unethical contractors will intentionally use inaccurate cost or pricing data to inflate costs in negotiated contracts.
Internal auditors should look for inaccurate or incomplete documentation provided by the contractor to support cost proposals. Sometimes, the contractor may delay providing supporting documentation for cost or pricing data, which may be inconsistent with actual prices or out-of-date pricing. It also is possible that the contractor does not include its negotiated discounts or rebates, or includes an unrealistic profit margin in pricing. Sometimes, contractors use different vendors and subcontractors during contract performance than the ones named in the original proposal. It is also possible that materials and components used are different than the ones included in the original proposal.
Post-contract Schemes
Fraud in the post-contract phase mainly focuses on contract management and payments made on contracts. Most organizations use an electronic accounts payable system with key controls around separation of duties between requisition, ordering, checking receipts of goods/services, and authorizing payments. Schemes are designed, often in collusion with in-house staff, to bypass these controls.
Nonconforming Goods or Services Here, the supplier intentionally delivers goods or services that do not conform to agreed specifications, substituting cheaper or inferior products. One red flag for internal auditors is a high percentage of returns or defects for noncompliance with specifications. Another red flag could be missing, altered, or modified product compliance certificates or compliance certificates signed by employees with no quality assurance responsibilities. Contractors and suppliers should not be allowed to select the sample of goods to be tested for quality assurance, prepare it for testing, or perform their own testing using their personnel and facilities.
Change Order Abuse Change orders and variations are written agreements between the procuring entity and the contractor to make changes to the finalized contract. This is a scheme whereby colluding parties — the contractor and the procuring staff — submit and accept a lower bid to win/award a contract and later bump up the cost via change orders or variations. These typically receive less scrutiny than the usual procurement contracts, which makes them vulnerable to dishonest contractors and employees looking to misuse and abuse established procurement processes for their own gain.
Change order misuse often is characterized by poor internal controls, making it difficult for management to ensure that all change orders are really necessary for work that was unknown at the time the contract was awarded. Usually, procurement employees act out of scope and numerous change orders are justified on a variety of grounds, including the need to substitute more expensive alternatives, unavailability of material or equipment, change in price, and inflation. There is, usually, a repeated pattern of change orders that increases the price, scope, or agreement period. Internal auditors may also find questionable change orders favoring particular contractors.
Cost Mischarging Here, the contractor charges the procuring entity for costs that are unreasonable or unallowable. They also may charge costs that cannot be allocated directly or indirectly to the contract, or may mischarge for accounting, labor, or materials. Internal auditors should be alert to inadequate or absent audit trails supporting the costs charged. Sometimes cost estimates are inconsistent with prices charged or the contractor may even use outdated standards.
Mitigating Fraud
Internal auditors should be alert to distorted rationalizations used by staff and managers to justify noncompliance with established policies, procedures, and practices. Ultimately, it is management's responsibility to take appropriate steps to prevent fraud and minimize procurement risks. This is done through data analytics implementation, strengthening the first two lines in the internal control structure, and staff awareness and training to identify vulnerabilities in the procurement process. The overarching requirement is to improve organizational culture, whereby ethical breaches are identified and reported by employees early and rectified promptly.
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موضوعات متنوعة
موسومة تحت
الثلاثاء, 24 أغسطس 2021 14:40
ماكنالي الرئيس الجديد لمعهد المحاسبين الإداريين
عين معهد المحاسبين الإداريين رسمياً ج. ستيفن ماكنالي كرئيس لمجلس إدارة IMA العالمي، وهو يخطط للتركيز على الحضور المتزايد للمؤسسة على المستوى الدولي.
معلومات إضافية
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المحتوى بالإنجليزية
New IMA chair McNally embraces global focus
By Michael Cohn
July 16, 2021, 4:24 p.m. EDT
7 Min Read
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The Institute of Management Accountants officially appointed J. Stephen McNally as chair of the IMA’s global board of directors, and he plans to focus on the organization’s growing presence internationally.
McNally, who is CFO of the Plastic Technologies group of companies and previously spent a long career as a finance executive at Campbell Soup, will chair the IMA global board for fiscal year 2022, from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022. He will be succeeded by Gwen van Berne of the internet registry RIPE NCC in the Netherlands (see story).
The IMA, like other accounting organizations such as the AICPA, have been putting more emphasis on broadening their international presence. McNally also hopes to advance the IMA’s thought leadership and research, especially around the future of work, and to advance the use of technology strategies in the accounting and finance profession and support members in being effective, well-rounded management accountants and finance professionals. He also plans to help members in the small business sector recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
McNally also will be chairing the IMA's Governance Standing Board Committee and be a member of the Nominating Standing Board Committee. He is a member of the IMA's Toledo Chapter and a former board liaison to the IMA Committee on Ethics.
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“I’m really excited and honored to be in the role as chair for IMA,” he told Accounting Today. “Clearly, we’re in a very dynamic environment and it’s just going to continue to ramp up and change, so one of my key priorities or goals is to support our members in becoming future ready, not knowing what that future looks like, but being future ready to do their work. That’s through things like keeping the CMA up to date, and doing various webinars and articles, all around just helping our members prepare for the future of work.”
J. Stephen McNally
McNally also plans to contribute to the IMA’s thought leadership work, especially around the use of internal controls over financial reporting, using the COSO framework, originated by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission.
“One of the things I’ve always been impressed with is how IMA is such a leader within the management accounting and finance profession on various topics,” he said”. I’m personally partial to COSO and internal controls and enterprise risk management. I had the honor of representing IMA on the COSO Advisory Council back in 2011-2012 that updated the internal control framework. IMA also drives thought leadership in the areas of sustainability and DE&I and ethics and so many areas.”
A big priority as global chair will be the IMA’s work internationally. “Over the last 10 to 12 years, we’ve very much evolved from a very U.S.-centric organization to a global organization, with over 140,000 members in over 150 countries,” said McNally. “Therefore, for me, it’s imperative that we reach out and listen to the voice of our global members, understand what they need, what their wants and desires are, and how IMA can support them.”
He also wants to do more to support small and midsized businesses. “I spent a good chunk of my career at Campbell Soup, which is obviously a big public company, but now I’m CFO of a small private company, and it was just an eye owner for me how it’s so important that smaller and midsized businesses have the financial talent to be successful. Therefore, it’s so important that we, IMA, support our members in smaller and midsized businesses so they can support their organizations.”
One way the IMA will be supporting businesses is by helping them get through the pandemic as the organization makes plans to once again hold in-person meetings and conferences. “On the one hand, I absolutely am hoping that through vaccinations and through the virus itself becoming more and more under control, hopefully we do have an opportunity to go back to meeting in person and having those live events,” said McNally. “For finance and accounting professionals, it’s important that we play a key role within our organizations and think through helping our organizations be ready for the future, whether that future is tomorrow, or a month out, or six months out. Even things like how do you go back — being completely remote, or is it a hybrid, or is it fully in person? As accounting and finance professionals, we’re inquisitive. We ask questions. That’s one of the key things we need to do within our cross-functional leadership team is ask those questions, to pressure test the decisions to ensure we’re making the best decisions as a company or as an organization.”
The IMA has also been collaborating with the California Society of CPAs on research examining diversity, equity and inclusion in the accounting profession (see story), and that fits in with the group’s international growth.
“I’m very proud of the fact that in the last 10 years alone IMA has gone from being very much U.S.-centric to a global organization, and is now represented in over 150 countries,” said McNally. “Along with that comes the importance of really ensuring that as an organization we hear the voice of our global members. This year, I’m really excited that on July 1, the same day that I became global chair, we’ve actually launched a brand-new, board-level standing advisory committee. It’s our Global Markets Committee. And at the same time, we’ve now launched regional advisory committees in China, India and the Middle East. This is one way that we’re going to ensure that we better hear the voices of our diverse members. And I’m also proud for the first time ever, my successor, Gwen van Berne, will be the first non-U.S. chair of the IMA, so from a governance perspective, we’re pushing very hard to ensure we’re really embracing all kinds of diversity, and giving appropriate representation, whether it’s on our global board or our global technical advisory committees. But also, IMA has played a key role in terms of educating the broader profession and community in regards to setting the tone when it comes to ensuring diversity and equity in our profession and, through that awareness, working toward improving that fact.”
The IMA has also been encouraging accountants to develop technology skills in areas like data analytics as part of its Management Accounting Competency Framework, and McNally hopes to continue that work.
“As CFOs and just generally as accounting and finance professionals, I think we need to take a leadership role,” he said. “Clearly technology plays such an important role in preparing for the future, preparing our respective organizations to be successful. It starts with individuals cultivating a technology savvy mindset, and as individuals, doing what we can. I know I read up on things like RPA and blockchain and data visualization, just staying connected with what the technology trends are, and again as management accountants and finance leaders setting the tone within our own organizations, and evaluating where we are today. What systems do we have? What processes do we have? Where can we be better, more efficient, more effective? How can technology help with that? With that said, typically small and midsized businesses don’t have excess funds to invest, so it’s also very important that we think through the return on investment. What is the technology investment otherwise? That’s another place where the accounting and finance professionals can really make a difference within their cross-functional leadership team in ensuring that we’re asking the right questions, and pressure testing so that we invest in the right technologies for us at this moment in time.”
Accountants need to monitor their organizations’ technology investments and make sure the money doesn’t get wasted. “Over my career, I saw too many times where investments were made in technology and you get yourself to that finish line of going live, and then the management team or the project team moves on, and you take away the budgets for training and such,” said McNally. “You can’t do that. If you’re going to make an investment in technology, it’s really important that you sustain it through the training, through the upgrades and such. That’s where we as management, finance and accounting professionals can make such a difference, especially because we’re the ones typically managing the budgets and have oversight of the budget and can ensure those investments are made for the long term.”
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الثلاثاء, 07 سبتمبر 2021 13:55
دراسة ماجستير: دور المصارف في الرقابة على عمليات غسيل الأموال
تعد ظاهرة غسيل الأموال أحد صور الجرائم الاقتصادية المنظمة التي تهدف إلى إضفاء الشرعية على أموال هي في الأصل ذات مصدر غير مشروع. ففي ظل تحول العالم إلى قرية كونية، ونتيجة للاندماج الحاصل في أسواق المال الدولية، وسياسة الاقتصاد الحر وحرية التجارة، فضلاً عن ثورة الاتصالات والانترنت، وفي ظل التطور التقني في الأنظمة المصرفية والمالية لم تعد مشكلة غسيل الأموال موضوعاً ذاتياً أو محلياً أو إقليمياً بل أصبح ظاهرة عالمية تستهدف الإنسان أينما كان باستهدافها لأوضاعه الاقتصادية والمالية والاجتمايعة والثقافية.
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رسائل ماجستير و دكتوراة
الإثنين, 13 سبتمبر 2021 07:25
دراسة ماجستير: تقييم فاعلية نظم الرقابة الداخلية في البنوك التجارية في الكويت
يشهد العالم اليوم أزمة كبيرة تتميز بتداعياتها الاقتصادية والمالية والاجتماعية الخطيرة على المستوى المحلي كما هي على المستوى الإقليمي والدولي، وتمثلت تلك التداعيات بصور عديدة أهمها الإفلاس وانعدام السيولة لعدد كبير من الشركات وبضمنها كبريات البنوك والمؤسسات المالية في العالم ولأن البنوك تعتبر الوسيط والمحرك الأساسي لمختلف القطاعات الاقتصادية فقد تفاقمت حدة الأزمة المالية فيها ولعل من بين العوامل الهامة التي تقف وراء أزمة البنوك ضعف أو انعدام الرقابة على عملياته المصرفية.
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رسائل ماجستير و دكتوراة
الأربعاء, 14 أكتوبر 2020 11:19
معهد المدققين الداخليين الدولي يقدم إطارًا جديدًا لكفاءة التدقيق الداخلي
قدم معهد المدققين الداخليين إطارًا جديدًا للتطوير المهني للمدققين الداخليين
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محاسبة و مراجعة
الثلاثاء, 27 سبتمبر 2022 14:08
كيفية استعداد المدققين الداخليين لتحقيق النجاح في بيئة الأعمال سريعة التغير اليوم؟
الطريق إلى الأمام
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محاسبة و مراجعة
الأحد, 13 سبتمبر 2020 13:13
دراسة ماجستير: أثر استخدام الحاسوب على أنظمة الرقابة الداخلية في المصارف العاملة في قطاع غزة
أدى ظهور الحاسبات الإلكترونية إلى ثورة كبيرة في مجال تشغيل البيانات بحيث يصعب أن نتصور منشأة كبيرة ترغب في القضاء على الصعاب التي يواجهها نظام المعلومات التقليدي إلا إذا استخدمت نظاماً يعتمد في المقام الأول على الحاسب الإلكتروني وهناك الكثير من الأسباب التي عجلت باستخدام الحاسب الإلكتروني في المجالات المحاسبية والإدارية
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رسائل ماجستير و دكتوراة
الأحد, 13 سبتمبر 2020 11:36
دراسة ماجستير: مساهمة التدقيق المحاسبي في دعم الرقابة الجبائية
تنص المادة 64 من الدستور الجزائري على ما يلي: "كل المواطنين متساوون في أداء الضريبة ويجب على كل واحد أن يشارك في تمويل التكاليف العمومية حسب قدرته الضريبية، لا يجوز أن تحدث أية ضريبة إلا بمقتضى القانون، ولا يجوز أن تحدث بأثر رجعي أية ضريبة أو جباية أو رسم أو أي حق كيفما كان نوعه". انطلاقاً من هذه المادة القانونية نرى أن للضريبة أهمية كبيرة لأنها تعد الينابيع التي تستقي منها الدولة الأموال اللازمة لسد نفقاتها العامة المستمرة والمتزايدة
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رسائل ماجستير و دكتوراة
الخميس, 10 سبتمبر 2020 13:23
دراسة ماجستير: مدى التزام المدقق الخارجي في الأردن بإجراءات واختبارات تقييم مخاطر الأخطاء المادية عند تدقيق البيانات المالية
إن الهدف الأساسي من تدقيق البيانات المالية للمنشأة هو الخروج برأي فني محايد حول عدالة القوائم المالية، ومسؤولية مدقق الحسابات هو تكوين رأيه المهني حول البيانات المالية وتشمل عملية التدقيق ممارسة الحكم المهني عند تصميم أسلوب التدقيق من خلال التركيز على ما يمكن أن يحدث من خطأ ، وتصميم وتنفيذ إجراءات التدقيق استجابة للمخاطر المقيمة من أجل الحصول على أدلة تدقيق كافية ومناسبة
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رسائل ماجستير و دكتوراة
الأربعاء, 08 سبتمبر 2021 11:53
دراسة ماجستير: دور نظام الرقابة الداخلية في تشخيص حالات الفساد المالي
نظراً للتطورات والتغيرات المتسارعة في مجالات الحياة المختلفة لاسيما وأن عصرنا الحالي يشهد ثورة هائلة في تكنولوجيا المعلومات والاتصالات، فلا تكاد تظهر تقنية جديدة حتى تليها تقنيات جديدة تحمل معها معارف وعلوم جديدة وأكثر حداثة من سابقاتها، ولقد اجتاحت هذه الثورة معظم ميادين الحياة وأصبحت هذه التقنيات الحديثة جزءاً مهما في نجاح وتطوير هذه الميادين لا سيما تلك التي تتعلق بالحياة الاقتصادية للمجتمع وذكل تزامناً مع ما تشهده بيئة الأعمال من منافسة شديدة
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رسائل ماجستير و دكتوراة