Our Fraud Awareness in the Church series continues as we look at Individual Payments: Contractors and Benevolence. We asked churches to respond to these statements:
“Before paying an individual as an independent contractor, our church applies IRS compliant tests to determine if the payee qualifies as an independent contractor.”
“Our church has written a policy to direct benevolence payment activity.”
With two notable exceptions, tax-exempt organizations are not to transfer assets or make payments to individuals. The two exceptions are Contractor payments — reasonable compensation for services provided the organization, and Benevolence payments — to individuals who are the target of the organization’s exempt purpose (rent assistance, etc.). Outside of these two exceptions, all other payments are looked upon with a degree of skepticism by the IRS.
Survey Results: Surprisingly, 40% of the respondents do not go through a formal employee vs. contractor test.
Key: Embezzlers tend to shy away from reporting their theft to the Government. If ALL payments to contractors are screened and a 1099 prepared, a fraud loophole is closed.
Another area particularly vulnerable to fraud is benevolence. Again, 40% of the churches do not operate under a written benevolence policy.
Key: Benevolence funds are one of the few accounts where payments to individuals are not suspicious. (Fraudsters are very aware of this fact.)
Double Key: Part of the benevolence policy should be to NEVER give funds directly to the people being helped. Make payments directly to 3rd parties. (Utility company, landlord ,etc.)
Part 7 of our ongoing Fraud in the Church series. PSK in cooperation with the National Association of Church Business Administration (NACBA) conducted a survey to determine the extent to which churches are attempting to address the problem of church fraud. We asked them to respond to this statement:
Our church follows written guidelines in administering benevolence fund activity.
Many churches establish benevolence funds to assist needy persons. This is a normal and expected function of any church. However, if assistance programs are not monitored closely the benevolence fund can become a target of theft. Benevolence funds are favorite targets for several reasons:
- There is no business cycle, making baseline analysis almost impossible
- Checks are written to a variety of individuals and vendors not closely related to the church, making it easy to slip one more in the pile
- To protect the confidentiality of recipients, some churches operate separate bank accounts that only one person has the right to see!
35% of our respondents do not follow written guidelines in administering assistance programs.
It is extremely important that the Church establish clear policies on its benevolence activities. Such policies should include but not be limited to:
- what funds will be accepted
- who will administer the funds
- who will receive the funds, and
- for what purposes the funds will be spent.
Best practices also dictate that a documented beneficiary application and approval process be followed when awarding assistance.
Part 6 of our ongoing Fraud in the Church series. PSK in cooperation with the National Association of Church Business Administration (NACBA) conducted a survey to determine the extent to which churches are attempting to address the problem of church fraud. We asked them to respond to this statement:
Our church requires volunteers responsible for special events to submit written financial reports.
The vast majority of churches have implemented adequate control procedures over the Sunday offerings. However, funds that arrive in the church office from Monday through Saturday are a completely different story. These types of revenues typically consist of offerings dropped off by members, fees for various events and food service revenues and special event revenues under the direct supervision of volunteers, such as fundraisers, banquets, and short-term mission trips.
According to our survey, a full third of the respondents have no reporting mechanism for these types of special events. Theft of special events funds by trusted volunteers frequently pop up in the news media. For example, in the city where I live, a prominent public school coach was relieved of his duties when it was learned that he was in the regular habit of skimming from the receipts his team’s annual fund raiser.
To avoid the headlines, at a minimum, churches should require volunteers to account for tickets and/or products sold and fees collected at fundraisers and special events. As a matter of routine the sales report should be reconciled with the total cash generated and deposited into the church bank account.
“We have rotating count teams with clear rules that account for every penny we collect in offerings…”
While this statement is not inaccurate, it is short-sighted. When churches think of fraud, Sunday offering protection is usually the first thing that comes to mind. And as a result, most churches do a very good job in protecting Sunday receipts. In fact, Fort Knox may be an easier target than some churches I have visited who have ratcheted down tightly their Sunday collection procedures!
But, if this is all a church does in protecting itself from fraud, they are at risk. There are at least two significant reasons:
First, Sunday offerings are not the only time cash comes into the church. Many churches with air-tight security over Sunday collections completely ignore what happens from Monday through Saturday. And in many churches, the amounts can be substantial, including day care fees, special event fees such as banquets and conferences, food sales, book sales, fund raising revenues, etc., etc., etc. Also, tithes and offerings that are dropped off during the week often circumvent the entire teller process and instead land directly on the bookkeeper’s desk.
Second, cash inflow is not the only place where embezzlement takes place. In fact, a case can be made that the larger cases do not involve the cash inflow processes, but the outflow. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners backs this assertion with statistics showing that while skimming (taking money before it is recorded) makes up 20% of reported fraud cases; check tampering is even more prevalent, making up 25% of the cases. In addition, fraudulent expense reports and payroll scams chip in another 29% for good measure.
So, churches with tight controls over Sunday cash receipts should be commended for their efforts, but also reminded that effective fraud prevention includes extending this vigilance to the other means of inflow, and the outflow side as well.
If you’d like to hear more about our Best Practices Review or one of the many other services we provide, please contact us at (817)664-3000 or email us using our contact form.
On September 9, 2010, St. Petersburg Times reported the following story:
Pastor Pleads Guilty in Embezzlement Case
Gregory S, 38, was an accountant for a staffing company when he was not busy preaching from the pulpit. During his employment with the staffing agency, he was able to write checks totaling $813,142 to his church without the staffing company’s or the church’s knowledge. Earlier this month, he pleaded guilty to theft from an employee benefit plan, he managed. The stolen funds received by his church were then used for personal and other expenses.
All churches are protective of the outflow of funds as most frauds occur during this process. However; the same level of attention, if not more, should be paid to the inflow of funds as well.
It appears that his church did not have a formal gift acceptance policy or if it did, the policy was not being followed. A proper gift acceptance policy and adequate contributions procedures, if followed, would have acted as a safety net and would have caught the fraudulent remittances by the retirement plan from being deposited in the church’s bank accounts.
Every ministry should adopt a policy regarding accepting gifts and contributions as not all gifts and contributions are necessarily beneficial to the organization. An effective gift-acceptance policy should be formalized, in writing, and must achieve the following primary objectives:
First, it should identify the types of assets your ministry will accept (e.g., cash, real estate). Next, it should provide guidelines as to the forms of gifts that are acceptable. Finally, it should define your ministry’s role in administering the gifts.
But that’s not enough. To meet the needs of your ministry and to help protect your resources and reputation, your gift acceptance policy should also:
I. State that your ministry will obtain legal input and advice when appropriate.
II. Specify limits your ministry may want to impose, such as maximums or minimums in regards to charitable gift annuities.
III. Detail any restrictions that donors will be permitted to place on gifts.
IV. Outline the responsibilities that donors have with respect to obtaining appraisals for their own tax purposes.
V. Identify the specific circumstances under which your ministry will obtain an independent appraisal.
VI. Outline how your ministry plans to acknowledge gifts.
VII. Note the time frame for communicating with donors.
VIII. Specify the procedures for amending the gift acceptance policy.
The pastor’s scheme would have been caught instantly, had the church communicated with the donor upon receipt of the first check.
To avoid this from happening at your church we have created FACT, a web based test which will identify the cracks in your current system and help you prevent fraud in the future.
Give us a call at (817) 664-3000.
