What’s the ‘why’? Understand the purpose of each control to prevent fraud
Consider this recent case study. A smaller local government had a limited number of staff working in its finance department. The finance director had broad access and authority over many of the agency's financial operations, including wire transfers. As such, someone else reconciled the bank statement each month. A key element to the agency's control structure was a simultaneous review of the bank activity itself, looking for fraud red flags such as odd, unusual or unexpected activity or vendors.