Safeguarding Your Operations: Fraud prevention and internal controls

摘要

OCCUPATIONAL FRAUD CONTINUES to be a threat to small business. As regional producers, we often forego critical safeguards necessary in preventing fraud due to perceived costs and unnecessary redundancies. This deficiency results in an increased vulnerability to fraud, and accounts for larger median losses than larger operating counterparts. Recent surveys estimate that the typical organization loses 5 percent of its revenues to fraud each year. Applied to the estimated 2011 Gross World Product, thisfigure translates to a potential projected global fraud loss of more than $3.5 trillion. These surveys estimate the median loss caused by the occupational fraud to be $140,000. More than one-fifth of cases caused losses of at least $1 million.