Resource Library - Fraud Prevention
Fraud typically occurs when the three legs of the Fraud Triangle – pressure, rationalization, and opportunity – align. Governments have little control over the pressures and employee may feel or the rationalizations they may make and should instead focus on reducing opportunities for fraud to occur. These resources and best practices will help you develop and improve your government’s internal controls to reduce the opportunity for fraud.
Guide: Segregation of duties
Segregation of duties, or separating conflicting duty assignments, can help you protect your government’s assets. This guide can help local governments understand how to separate job duties when it’s feasible. It covers all types of financial processes from cash receipting to payroll and banking. The guide also includes additional control options for small governments or small operations within larger governments.
Keywords: Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, AP, AR, Assets, Cash Receipting, Receipt, Receipts, Internal Controls, Payroll, Inventory, Procurement, Purchasing, General Ledger
Last updated: September 2019
Best Practices: Expect the Unexpected: How to Protect Unanticipated Revenue from Fraud
This resource has best practices to help you evaluate your internal controls around unanticipated revenue, and how to improve them. It outlines common fraud tactics, and includes tips for detecting and preventing this type of fraud in your government.
Keywords: Fraud Prevention, Government Operations, Organizational Safeguards
Last updated: November 2023
Best Practices: ACH electronic payments
These best practices can help governments improve their ACH payment process policies and employee training, establish a verification process, and monitor for unauthorized payee account changes.
Keywords: Accounts Payable, AP, Automated Clearing House, Expenditure, Expenditures, Fraud Prevention, Government Operations, Internal Controls, Organizational Safeguards, Payroll, Online Banking, Disbursements, Direct Deposit
Last updated: August 2022
Best Practices: Sending wire transfers
These best practices can help governments develop strong internal controls to prevent and detect wire transfer fraud. It includes key areas to address in employee training as well as advice to help you establish a verification process to confirm the authenticity of wiring instructions.
Keywords: Accounts Payable, AP, Expenditure, Expenditures, Fraud Prevention, Government Operations, Internal Controls, Organizational Safeguards, Online Banking, Disbursements
Last updated: August 2022
Guide: Trust, but verify: A guide for elected officials & appointed boards to prevent fraud
This resource can help elected officials and appointed boards understand their role in fighting employee fraud. It includes tips for implementing policies and best practices that can help prevent, detect, and respond to fraud in local government.
Keywords: Fraud Prevention, Organizational Safeguards
Last updated: November 2022
Guide: Making it easy to report concerns
Employees and citizens are more likely to report concerns if there is a known, discreet way to do it, and they have confidence their disclosure will be taken seriously and handled appropriately. Here are a few things to think about in setting up your own program, as well as some great resources to reference.
Keywords: Fraud Prevention, Organizational Safeguards, Hotline, Whistleblower
Last updated: October 2022