ACFE calls for new actions to fight corporate fraud

AUSTIN, Texas - The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, an organization dedicated to fighting fraud and white-collar crime, has recently called for four new actions to fight corporate fraud. "Fraud is like cancer. Passing a law against it won't make it go away," said ACFE President/CEO, Toby J.F. Bishop. "We need to focus on improving our prevention and detection measures to reduce the chance of it occurring and to catch it sooner when it does occur, as it inevitably will. There needs to be an equally strong focus on fraud prevention and detection. Congress has put auditors under intense pressure, but hasn't given them the tools they need to enable them to be successful." The ACFE recommends that all public companies should be required to: 1. Implement fraud prevention programs using current best practices. 2. Be audited using a new approach explicitly designed to maximize the chance of detecting material fraud. 3. Have a fraud specialist participate in the audit. 4. Have their officers, directors, and auditors undergo annual anti-fraud training. Bishop says that most companies have inadequate fraud prevention programs because many people think that fraud won't happen to their organization. Yet, according to the ACFE 2002 Report to the Nation on Occupational Fraud & Abuse, fraud of one type or another occurs in almost every business today, costing American businesses approximately 6% of revenues or $600 billion annually. To help identify the major gaps in fraud prevention programs, the ACFE has developed a "Fraud Prevention Check-Up" which can be downloaded free from the Web site www.CFEnet.com.