The first step in fraud prevention is knowing what you are coming up against.  In other words, a clear understanding must be gained of what financial fraud is before designing a battle plan to confront it.

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) defines occupational fraud as “the use of one’s occupation for personal enrichment through the deliberate misuse or misapplication of the employing organization’s resources or assets.”   Because of the heavy reliance of churches on volunteers, this definition should be expanded to include unpaid staff in addition to employees.  According to the ACFE, there are three major types of occupational fraud:

• Fraudulent financial reporting
• Corruption
• Misappropriation of assets.

Churches tend to think only in terms of the latter category when developing fraud prevention strategies.  That probably explains why much of a church’s efforts in fraud control are spent on protecting the Sunday offerings.  Unfortunately however, churches are hit by all three types of fraud.

PSK LLP has provided this article as a resource to help churches prevent fraud.
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or email Verne at verne@pskcpa.com