Fraud and corruption free essay sample

INTRODUCTION Fraud and corruption is one of the biggest issues that the society is facing and is also one of the most challenging issues that have yet to be tackled worldwide. Organizations end up losing a lot of profits due to the scrupulous nature of its employee’s fraudulous activities. Fraud and corruption is like a cancer, it can spread everywhere, it can be done to people, by people and people always end up suffering. It requires the effort of all individuals to curtail it. Ethical issues identified The organization is made up of different ethnic and cultural groups, employees tend to owe allegiance to members of their own community. This normally occurs mostly during the recruitment process whereby the interviewer selects a relative to take up a position for which he or she is not qualified and end up discriminating the rest of the qualified applicants thus promoting corruption in the organization. Some people lack integrity thus do not care what other people think of them when they commit fraud. Such persons are ethnocentric and lack self image and perception thus can only think of themselves when conducting fraud and not of how the organization will be affected. Due to lack of adequate training employees end up not knowing what their jobs entail and are thus caught in the web of fraud and corruption due to influence from others who might channel them in the wrong direction and enticing them to be corrupt. Greed can also be an ethical issue as people tend to be ethnocentric and care for their own well-being. Certain systems create monopoly or bottleneck and thus end up creating circumstances for fraud and corruption to strive; they narrow the resources available and seek to develop power and status out of this. Remuneration can also be a factor that can lead to fraud and corruption as poor pay contributes to how employees tend to conduct their activities, often by accepting bribes and falsifying accounting documents. Impact of fraud and corruption to the organization Most organizations end up loosing a lot of profits due to the scrupulous nature of its employees. The organization ends up loosing its place in the competitive market and at times leading to bankruptcy as most of its customers will tend to lean towards their competitors. Occurrence of fraud in an organization makes people feel that the organizations system is ineffective and cannot adequately cater to their needs. There is also the lack of trust because customers and the general public at large questions the company’s efficiency in product and service delivery and thus will end up loosing a lot of customers. The image of the company is shunned by the society and none will want to be associated with the company. Service delivery of an organization is often affected by fraudulous activities as the society tends to be underprovided as the resources available are channeled elsewhere, or in other instances services are completely withheld from the consumers who in turn loose their trust in the organization. Example is the procurement department of most organizations, whereby some of the employees end up taking the delivered goods and giving them to their family members e. g. all the branded company items that end up in our homes; pens, t-shirts, umbrellas etc. Role of employees in eliminating fraud and corruption An employee has a duty to be devoted and committed to service delivery and also be loyal to the organization. This goes a long way in eliminating corruption and fraud. One should also be selfless by doing their best to the best of their ability and also helping and motivating his fellow co-workers to do the same and where possible acting as a model for the rest of the employees to emulate. As a good abiding citizen and also a loyal employee one should report cases of fraud when they occur in the organization because committing fraud is a crime which is punishable by law and such individuals should be handed over to the court for punishment to be enacted. If the case of fraud is trivial the company can handle it by firing the mentioned individual. Measures that the organization can enforce in curtailing fraud and corruption The company can undertake to train its employees on the disastrous effects of fraud and its impact to the organization. The organization can also help the employees develop a positive attitude towards their jobs and also understand their role in curtailing fraud and corruption tin the organization. The organization can also organize seminars, conferences lecturer’s workshops for its employees to educate them on the causes effects and consequences of corruption By establishing a code of ethics that the employees can adhere to the company goes a long way in creating awareness and also establishing guidelines that will help direct the employees in their activities. The code of ethics should be detailed and should also outline the consequences that one is bound to face should he be found out conducting fraudulous activities. Continuous auditing of the organization should also be conducted to ensure that the financial documents are not falsified and that they reflect a true and fair view of the company’s business transactions. Any miscellaneous expenses and ghost accounts can be verified during the audit process. the organization can also reduce lengthy procedures and also streamline some of the departments systems so that it is easy to identify when the system has been tampered with e. g. the payroll system where you can find non-existent employees of the list of workers, if an effective payroll system is adapted by the organization, it will be able to quickly identify such issues. By establishing performance appraisal for the employees the company is able to fish out those individuals who do not meet the company’s target and who by any means do not deserve to be in certain positions as this probably occurred through corruption for promotion to have been effected. The organization can also establish an efficiency unit to help monitor the company’s activities and ensure efficiency in all departments.