The Principal Consultant of e-Crime Bureau, Alex Oppong has called on organisations to explore innovative ways of motivating their staffs.
Speaking at the maiden forum on integrity management, Oppong said “we need to find different ways in motivating our staffs, to ensure that situational pressures don’t become an issue within the organisation.
“What you need is to put people into certain courses or place them on projects that would interest them,” Oppong added.
Oppong noted that, it doesn’t have to be a money thing, because, if everyone in an organisation were to be paid GHS 1 million every month, it would still not be enough.
A key component that impacts that development of organizations is the management of employee ethics and integrity.
E-Crime Bureau’s assessment indicates that most organizations remain highly vulnerable to insider-related fraud, breaches as well as other corporate malpractices.
Findings from more than 60 percent of cases investigated by e-Crime Bureau in 2017 confirm the involvement of insiders, either directly or indirectly in financial crime incidents.
For a fraud incident to occur, there is the need for three conditions, that increase the risk of fraud
The key to deterring fraud is to understand how and why people commit fraud. Knowing the “how” helps managers and business owners create policies and design internal controls to reduce the occurrence of fraud.
The question of “why” is much more complicated, but just important.
Three conditions that when present in varying degrees, increase the risk of fraud are; the situational pressure to commit fraud, the opportunity to commit fraud, and integrity or the rationalization of committing the fraud.
The pressure, or incentive, to commit fraud is the reason why a person commits fraud. However, the reason an employee commits fraud can change over time.
The opportunity to commit fraud is the circumstances that allow fraud to occur and is the only condition over which the company has complete control.
Opportunities to commit fraud are more commonly present in organizations that have poor internal controls because it makes it easier for the employee to commit fraud and provide a low-risk environment for getting caught.
However, companies with ample internal controls are still susceptible to fraud, if controls can be overridden by management.
Rationalization of committing fraud is the most difficult condition to observe because it takes place in the mind of the perpetrator. Rationalization has to do with justifying the fraud.
All three conditions must be present in varying degrees in order for fraud to occur.
One of the key objectives of the forum was to develop the practical skills of professionals to address contemporary challenges in dealing with issues of financial crimes, cybercrime, workplace fraud, corruption, sabotage, employee misconduct, as well as breach of corporate ethics and code of conduct and other disciplinary issues.
By Joshua W. Amlanu
