And the Fraud Continues

599 Words3 Pages
Case Study 1: And the Fraud Continues Discuss the internal control weaknesses that existed at MCI that contributed to the commission of this fraud. Walt Pavlo would not have been able to commit fraud if MCI had better internal controls. Because of the weaknesses in MCI internal control he was able to defraud the company out of approximately 6 million dollars. Because Pavlo helped to create the accounts receivable system he knew its strengths and weaknesses and was therefore was able to manipulate it. There seem to be little segregation of duties and independent verification. Two controls alone could have prevented the fraud. Pavlo had the ability to modify the accounts receivable balances and also receive customer payments. A supervisory-level employee not involved in recording transactions in the accounts receivable system should have reviewed and authorized adjustments to customer accounts. Because he was not forced to get approval from someone else for what he was doing the fraud went uncovered. A system report of all manual adjustments recorded in the accounts receivable system should be generated for review and approval by someone who was higher up and/or was not involved in recording accounts receivable transactions. Where were the internal auditors at MCI? There internal auditors were responsible for ensuring that all internal controls are put in place to prevent errors or corruption like these from occurring and that they controls are functioning properly. It was their job to search for any errors or fraud that may be occurring. The internal auditors should have been randomly combing through the accounting records without notifying the employees. It would have been difficult for Pavlo to continue his schemes if there auditors were doing their job. Part of Pavlo’s fraud included lapping in which he would use the cash from one customer to pay down a

More about And the Fraud Continues

Open Document