In this era of technological advancement and also having entangled ourselves in this scientific milieu, there is the need to combat and curb malfeasances such as fraud and abuse bedeviling our world making the world less habitable. We have also been faced with a barrage of challenges in this informative age hence the need for awareness as well as regulatory framework to inform, monitor, check and demand clarity and accountability when the need be.
In our bid to sanitize the system (immediate environment) and make it an effective, efficient, and a beacon of hope for the younger generation and posterity to judge and appreciate, we came out with Center for Compliance Analysis and the Prevention of Fraud (FPACC), a non – governmental organization with core mandate of checking, tracking and bringing to bare the atrocities perpetuated by society unto itself.
Research has shown that not only people in positions of trust and of influence that end up mismanaging the resources ear marked for vital roles but also low level employees like the messenger, typist, watchmen etc. This means most employees management and staff) ends up satisfying their individual interests at the expense of the entities; a serious canker and abnormality which if not checked in time will ruin our dear continent Africa.
Over the world, Occupational Fraud and Abuse is of worry to multi-million companies and governments. The United States with its stringent Federal, State and Local statutes against fraud with the numerous regulatory bodies, estimates that an annual amount of $100 billion and counting is the fraud perpetuated at the Healthcare sector alone. So it stands to reason that we are more vulnerable to this menace and if care is not taken we will end up achieving nothing, and colossal sums of money will go down the drain bring about serious decline in productivity and the quality of life of our people. As a friend of history, FPACC will like to bring back to memory how multimillion companies such as WorldCom and Enron collapsed due to serious and “highly motivated” levels of fraud perpetuated by its own employees. Some of these mishaps permeate sensitive fibers of the companies, rendering them helpless.
The Center for Compliance Analysis and the Prevention of Fraud (FPACC) has its core mandate of cross examination, tracking and hunting down people who are engaged in fraud of any form be it Internet fraud (Sakawa), money laundering, 419 or mismanaging resources at your disposal. FPACC seeks to augment the efforts of most fraud regulatory bodies in existence such as the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), Commission on Human Right and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and other anti – fraud bodies in their effort to palliate these forms of crime.
Most frauds are perpetuated from the highest level of the Organization to the lowest level. Every Organization has code of ethics and some controls in place to mitigate occupational fraud and abuse but what is lacking is mostly found to be wherewithal and the will to enforce these controls. Most often than not people have their lives and jobs threatened (fear of retaliation) if they attempt to expose wrong doings or any form of malfeasance in their work place and hence are forced to succumb. As a result Occupational fraud has been accepted as a part and parcel of our institutions. What FPACC will do is to develop policies and programs that encourage managers and employees to report suspected fraud and other improprieties without fear of retaliation.
Aside most of the companies doing well in their daily business it can be observed that what is most lacking in these organizations has to do with the following:
* Implementation of the controls
* Testing of these controls to determine if they are working effectively
* Creating awareness of these Controls by providing adequate training to Management and Staff
* Enforcement.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF FPACC
The under listed are some of the aims and objectives of the Center for Compliance Analysis and Fraud Prevention
* Help Governments, Corporations and Businesses save cost by detecting, deterring and preventing fraud
* Make organizations more efficient and profitable (by helping them be Compliant with existing Laws and Regulations governing their operations and also testing their Internal Control Systems to determine Control Deficiencies and creating effective control mechanisms that would reduce fraud risk and increase profitability and efficiency).
* Private Fraud Investigators and Examiners with special interest in Internet Fraud (SAKAWA) and Advance Fee Fraud (419).
* Conducting Forensic Accounting and Auditing to uncover fraud.
* Conducting surveys and opinion polls about the perception of fraud.
* Advocates for Legislations that would help Detect, Deter and Prevent Occupational Fraud and Abuse in our system.
* Conducting Research into Occupational Fraud and Abuse
* Rendering Consultancy Services to Governments, Businesses and Corporations at subsidized rates.
* Educating the public on effects of fraud.
* Recruiting Fraud Experts for Governments, Corporations and Businesses.
* Creating Fraud Database.
SENSITIZATION PROGRAMS UNDERTAKEN by FPACC
The center for Compliance Analysis and Prevention of Fraud undertake the following sensitization exercises with the aim of letting people identify fraud in different forms and its adverse impact on the Macro and Micro – economy of a country. Personnel from FPACC do the following:
* Educate the public to understand how fraud is committed and how it can be identified;
* Examine books and records to detect and trace fraudulent transactions;
* Interview suspects to obtain information and confessions;
With these exposures on the goals and the aims of the Center for Compliance Analysis and the Prevention of Fraud (FPACC) we hope and believe that organizations will contact us to harness some of our expertise to alleviate the social canker of occupational fraud and abuse for optimum profit and a better society.
The Center is a brain child of Desire L. Ankah, a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and some colleagues with so many years of experience in US Government/Defense Contracts together with their counterparts with variety of experiences in the African Market.
For more information and how to contact us, visit us at http://www.fpacc.org
John Dei,
Director of Operations
No comments:
Post a Comment