-to be the main focus of Audit Seminar this week
A one-day seminar/workshop, organized by the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) –Guyana Chapter on Fraud Prevention, Detection and Investigation is scheduled for this Friday. Fraud is now considered a 21st century industry, and like death and taxes, will always be with us. This in itself is a call to action to ensure that all governance stakeholders –the board, the audit committee, auditors, senior management and all staff members to have a most meaningful role to play.
Most frauds are perpetrated by parties and organisations to obtain money, property or services; to avoid payment or loss of services; or to secure personal or business advantage.
Statistics on a global basis have revealed that nearly one-third of business failures are attributed to internal fraud while organisations are said to be losing as much as seven per cent of their revenues as a result of this problem. As a result approximately 85 per cent of the worst frauds are perpetuated by employees.
Preventing, detecting, investigating and taking corrective action on frauds are essential to the health and integrity of organisations and the wider community.
The local Chapter of the IIA is very sensitive to the increasing number of frauds perpetuated in the last year. In this light, it is imperative that it takes the leading role by mounting the seminar/ workshop for staff employed in both the public and private sectors.
The seminar is designed to focus on: an increased understanding of fraud and corruption; types of fraud and corruption; why fraud or corruption occurs; fraud or corruption red flags; investigation techniques; fraud/corruption controls and the roles of the board, senior management and internal audit; and anti-fraud and anti-corruption policies and procedures.
After this seminar presentation, a workshop session is expected to follow where the Presenters, IIA Executives and the participants will be sharing their experiences on fraud indicators, prevention, detection and investigations.
This seminar/workshop is being coordinated by the President of  IIA Guyana Chapter, Mr. John Seeram. The presenters will be Mr. Lall Balkaran from the Toronto IIA Chapter and Mr. Deodat Indar from the Guyana Chapter. Both of these presenters bring to the forum vast experience in the area of fraud and corruption.
The opening remarks, to set the tone for the day, will be delivered Mr. Ramesh Dookhoo, President of the Manufacturing and Services Association.
At the end of the day, the participants of the seminar will be updating their knowledge and understanding of fraud indicators.
On the wider picture, the organisations represented will benefit from the training.