Adopted from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE 2012, p. 33)
According to Omar and Abu Bakar (2012), in the past, paying attention to the techniques that prevent fraud was
weak or around 20%, while 80% was on the detection of fraud. Thus, they revealed that there was a need to
reverse the emphasis and place 80% of the focus on prevention techniques more than detection techniques. An
existing strong internal control system is a value which is notable in both preventing and detecting fraud (Omar
& Abu Bakar 2012). A weak internal control system creates opportunities for fraud and about half of all frauds
occur in the financial area (Vanasco 1998). Generally, the effectiveness of internal control depends basically on
the management’s philosophy of enhancement of integrity.
As it was stated before, the cost of fraud is not only a financial loss but a loss of spirit. It spoils the
organization’s culture and ethics, creates a suspicious environment, and introduces severe measures that could be
avoided. Management review and continuous improvement of the internal control system are often thought of as
the primary defence against fraud (Salem 2012; Seetharaman et al. 2004). A strong system of internal control is
the most effective method of fraud prevention (Seetharaman, et al. 2004). Every organization must identify the
internal control's weaknesses then improve the current system with new or modified control (Seetharaman et al.
2004). Thus, an organization must adopt and enforce a control system to reduce the opportunities to commit
fraud.
Since most occupational fraud is committed by key employees, the organization must set a code of conduct to
insure that rules of reliability and integrity are employed, particularly for the positions of responsibility (Vanasco
1998). The current employees by granted authorisation have the opportunity to access and use confidential
information which can be used to commit fraud (Seetharaman et al. 2004). Therefore, organizations must take
actions such as conducting background checks which should be appropriate with the level of risk associated with
the position, to a certain extent, which would help to prevent fraud (KPMG 2011).
In order to improve efforts to prevent corporate fraud, the management should conduct an assessment of: the
specific risks facing their company based on applicable laws, the industry in which their company operates, their
amount of interaction with government’s officials, and their geographic location. The Board of Directors should
approve an anti-fraud policy with guidelines on accepting gifts, food and travel cost reimbursement of foreign
officials, charitable giving, compliance certifications, and contracts with right-to-audit clauses and anti-bribery
warranties (Bierstaker 2009). This policy should be distributed to management, announced to employees, and
declared on the organization’s website (Bierstaker 2009). Every employee who is in charge of sales, marketing,
or purchasing should receive periodic integrity training programs about ethics and which activities and practices
are acceptable or unacceptable.
Commercial Angles’ Newsletter (2001) introduced a two-stage process of combat fraud: fraud prevention and
fraud deterrence. First, in the fraud prevention process, organizations must ensure that any gateways to commit
fraud are closed or at least that committing fraud is difficult. Second, in the fraud deterrence process,
organizations must take actions to ensure that potential fraudsters believe they will be caught. The introduction
and enforcement of new effective controls would reduce the opportunities for fraudsters and in terms of time and
effort would consume just a little management.
The foundation of any good fraud control framework is a set of integrated prevention mechanisms. Though fraud
cannot totally be avoided, the risk of its occurrence can be substantially reduced if companies design efficient