Mitigating Compliance Risks

As the fraudsters continue to change modes of operation, so must the people who are trained to detect them.

Bruce Dorris, J.D., CFE, CPA, CVA, ACFE program director, urges audit and compliance professionals to remain current on the legislative changes that pertain to compliance, risk and fraud.

Keeping up to date on cases like the 2010 case titled City of Ontario v. Quon can help companies steer clear from the problems that can arise from unenforced or inconsistent electronic-use policies.

According to Dorris, this case made it to the U.S. Supreme Court because of arguments Jeff Quon and his co-defendants made regarding a formal policy that they all signed, which eliminated any expectation of privacy. Despite signing the policy, they claimed to still have a reasonable expectation of privacy because management did not enforce the policy and, through statements, implemented an informal policy that defeated the formal written policy.

“The company had a firm policy stating specifically that employees should have no expectation of privacy,” said John Gill, ACFE vice president of education. “It came down to a problem in compliance from middle management. The same arguments Quon made about his policy being faulty and inconsistent are the same arguments your employees could make against you.”

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