‘Abu-Ghazaleh’ and International Arab Society of Certified Accountants Hold ‘Fraud in the Time of Corona’ Seminar
AMMAN - The International Arab Society of Certified Accountants (IASCA), in cooperation with Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Knowledge Forum (TAG-KF), held the second digital seminar within the series of Challenges of the World Economy seminars, entitled ‘Fraud in the Time of Corona’; hosting Mr. Hossam El Shaffei. El Shaffei is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Internal Audit Foundation at the Global Institute of Internal Auditors and Chairman of the Board Higher Education Committee at the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE).
During the session El Shaffei explained that intentional fraud is different from unintentional mistakes. He identified three main types of such fraud including: Misstatements arising from fraudulent financial reporting, fraudulent data arising from misappropriation of assets and corruption.
According to El Shaffei, three key factors could collectively lead to the occurrence of fraud: pressure for committing the fraud, opportunity and logical motivation.
Furthermore, Mr. El Shaffei referred to different ways of fraud, especially in the time of corona, most notably, the electronic fraud (Cyber fraud), supplier-salespersons’ fraud, as well as fraud in healthcare and insurance sectors.
Mr. El Shaffei stressed that the higher management and boards of directors are responsible for applying corporate governance and developing effective fraud control systems, noting that fraud is one of the challenges facing enterprises and sectors that badly affects performance, causes loss of money and resources and harms the facility’s reputation and competitiveness.
He also indicated that the resulting damage could have forms other than financial loss; as loss could also affect the enterprise’s performance, reputation, credibility, and investor confidence. All of that requires the administration to create anti-fraud programs and policies, he emphasized.
El Shaffei believes that fraud is an illegal activity characterized by deceit, concealment, or violation of trust, and are not the result of threat of physical force or violence. The motivation behind these crimes he said, is financial greed: obtain more money or avoid losing money, gaining property, or services or securing personal or business advantage.
He pointed out that that Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) is the world's largest anti-fraud organization and the premier provider of anti-fraud training and education.
Together with more than 85,000 members around the world, the ACFE is reducing business fraud worldwide and inspiring public confidence in the integrity and objectivity within the profession.
Concerning the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), El Shaffei noted that it is an international professional association and the internal audit profession's global voice, whose members work in internal auditing, risk management, governance, internal control, information technology audit, education, and security.
This seminar comes as part of a series of specialized dialogue talks organized in cooperation between IASCA and TAG-KF entitled ‘The Challenges of Global Economy’ which will conduct in a live broadcast through the Forum’s Facebook page to highlight the most critical global economic challenges, discussions and dialogue with experts from the public and private sectors locally, regionally and internationally.
The seminars include educational and awareness lectures in various economic,
The International Arab Society of Certified Accountants (IASCA) was established as a non-profit professional accounting organization on January 12, 1984 in London - UK and was officially registered in Amman on February 24, 1994. IASCA aims to improve the science of accounting, auditing and other related subjects at the international level, as well as to maintain the professional independence of accountants, ensure their protection and apply professional supervision standards as means of upgrading the accountancy and auditing professions.