Fraud Solutions and Best Practices – The ACFE’s Findings
The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) and Fraud Advisory Panel’s “The mandatory reporting of fraud: Finding solutions and sharing best practice” report reveals a lot.
This small-range study intended on examining the ever-rising significance of making reporting fraud a mandatory practice in England and Wales and balances the justifications of the significant impact that fraud reporting legislations have had on other countries across the globe. In Scotland for example, it was found that “Section 31 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 201028 places certain classes of individual under a duty to report to the police, any knowledge or suspicion of another person’s involvement in serious organised crime. It is an offence for an individual under such a duty to fail to disclose that knowledge or suspicion”. Knowing the rules and regulations of neighbouring countries aided in weighing out what the advantages and disadvantages would be for England and Wales if they were to go down the same route.
Having conducted their research through methods such as reviewing the relevant documentation, interviewing fraud experts and other professionals (comprising of countries where the obligation to report fraud is required by law), conducting a survey of the approaches taken in different areas towards tackling fraud and an online forum debate with fraud experts, alongside a webinar looking into the role of leadership in fraud reporting, the ACFE were able to increase their current understanding of whether organisations across the UK were in favour of making the reporting of fraud a mandatory requirement, what these organisations considered to be potential barriers in the current and future regulations, solutions to implementing requirements and lastly, the consummate system that mandatory reporting of fraud should take if it were to be introduced.
Fraud Solutions
It was found that a significant percentage of organisations believed that “The victims should have control over their response, and not be forced to do something which could be against their own interests for a fairly nebulous public benefit”, leading to the conversation of whether there is a case for a few of the organisations to become prosecuting authorities.
And even though over three-quarters of the fraud professionals and others who sported an interest in the subject matter of fraud reporting interviewed as part of this study supported the introduction of mandatory fraud reporting in England and Wales in one way or another, a handful of the same individuals displayed less interest in making failure to report a fraud a criminal offence. This is due to the concern that if fraud reporting was mandated, it would lead to an analogous situation as seen with the SARs regime, where the risk of prosecution for failure to report fraud led to meagre quality submissions from management and persons to avert falling foul of governing necessities.
About ACFE
The ACFE is the world’s leading anti-fraud organization and premier provider of anti-fraud training and education. Together with 90,000 members, the ACFE is reducing business fraud worldwide and inspiring public confidence in the integrity and objectivity within the profession.
The mission of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners is to reduce the incidence of fraud and white-collar crime and to assist the Membership in fraud detection and deterrence. To accomplish our mission, the ACFE:
- Provides bona fide qualifications for Certified Fraud Examiners through administration of the CFE Examination
- Sets high standards for admission, including demonstrated competence through mandatory continuing professional education
- Requires Certified Fraud Examiners to adhere to a strict code of professional conduct and ethics
- Serves as the international representative for Certified Fraud Examiners to business, government and academic institutions
- Provides leadership to inspire public confidence in the integrity, objectivity, and professionalism of Certified Fraud Examiners
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