Fraud Investigator Certification

Course overview

The Enron scandal, one of the most massive white collar crime cases exhibited how fraud can bring an organization to its knees. The consequences of fraud are worse in governmental organizations where the consequences are more widespread. Fraud detection and investigative audit is the source platform of the efficiency of all other governmental functions. The lessons offered in this course give a simplified view of fraud detection and investigative audit matters in today’s governmental environment. This program is equipped with highly-interactive activities and real world-scenario examples that enhance the participant’s interest and passion for the subject at a personal and institutional level. The course highlights the theoretical basis of fraud detection, deeply scrutinizing the analytical techniques that institutions and other stakeholders require. Parties holding fraud detection and investigative audit responsibilities will find the course a vital necessity. Participants with general parastatal management interest and those planning to undertake careers in fraud detection and investigative audit will also find the course content useful. 

TARGET AUDIENCE

• Parastatal managers
• Participants who wish to pursue fraud detection and investigative audit as a career
• Entrepreneurs and business leaders/managers
• Directors and board members in governmental and non-governmental institutions
• Financial institutions
• Consultancy firms
• Legal and compliance managers
• Policy-makers
• Internal and external auditors
• Institutional accountants
• Others

Learning Objectives

After completion of this course, participants should be conversant with the following:

• Understand how to incorporate best practices in fraud detection.
• Understand the role of the auditor in fraud detection and prevention.
• Develop a value-driven and ethical organization culture.
• Understand how to apply technology in fraud detection and investigative audit.
• Become aware of the emerging issues in fraud detection and investigative audit.

Our Unique Training Methodology

Let me explain to you how this course is different from the thousands of other courses available on the internet.

• Pre-Assessment – Before beginning, a pre-assessment will be provided to assess the knowledge and skills of the participants.
• Lecture/Discussion – Lecture & discussion interactive session on the basics of human resource management to make participants more engage with the course.
• Guided Group Exercises – Dividing the class into small groups, an exercise, or a case study to work through.
• Hands-on Application – Providing participants with a hands-on application of the concepts they have learned.
• Post-Assessment – Question & answer session for solving all queries.

Training Medium

This Behavioral Interviewing training is designed in a way that it can be delivered face-to-face and virtually.

Course Duration

The training can be in the form of a full-fledged 40-hour program or a 15-hour crash course covering 5-hour content per day within 3 days.

Pre-course Assessment

• Planning your introduction – the brief will be shared with participants via mail
• Reading Reviewing the course outline training modules and sharing any rising amendments no more than 48 hours’ prior
• Questionnaire answers will remain confidential and used only for purposes of understanding the participant’s expectation in this class. 

Course Modules

Module 1. Introduction

• Introduction exercise: What are the likely consequences of government fraud to the affected institution and society respectively? 
• Brief overview of government accounting
• The evolution of fraud
• History of forensic accounting
• Identification and definition of the types of fraud
• The significance of investigative audit in government

Module 2. The Primary Indicators of Fraud

• Introduction exercise: Participants to discuss the possible indicators of fraud in a pubic organization.
• Distinguishing fraud from error
• Identifying vulnerable points
• Missing documents
• Lifestyle changes
• Identifying financial transaction and reporting dynamics
• Oral peer-discussion question: Define any major challenge(s) to efficient fraud detection and how you would mitigate against it/them?

Module 3. Data Mining as a Major Forensic Technique

• Introduction exercise: Oral peer-discussion and response on what constitutes forensic auditing.
• Overview of computer-aided audit
• Big data analytics and forensic accounting
• Cloud computing and forensic accounting
• Introduction to computer aided audit techniques
• Skills required for forensic auditors
• Regulatory issues in data mining and forensic audit
• Live peer-discussion question: What should be the biggest concern for forensic auditors while investigating governmental organizations?

Module 4. Types and Causes of Fraud in Government Institutions 

• Introduction exercise: Oral discussion-participants to list any possible causes of fraud in governmental institutions.
• Incentive and pressure
• Opportunity
• Attitude and rationalization
• False claims and statements
• Qui tam concepts
• Procurement and contractor fraud
• Food for thought: What would you do as an internal auditor if you realize that your institution is colluding with external auditors to conceal fraudulent transactions?

Module 5. Fraud Detection and Mitigation Techniques

• Introduction 
• Documents of interest in fraud detection
• Auditor’s responsibility in fraud detection and prevention
• Artificial-intelligence techniques of fraud detection
• Statistics data analysis methods of fraud detection
• Financial statements analysis
• Internal controls
• Stakeholder background check
• The relationship between organization culture and fraud
• Fraud insurance
• Closing exercise: Participants to prepare personal narrations of how they would improve internal controls as the new head of compliance department where the company had a previous culture of fraud.

Module 6. The Fraud Investigation Process

• Introduction    
• Consultation
• Examination and identification (Transactional analysis, Computer-aided forensics)
• Background review
• Asset recovery and legal action
• Food for thought: What do you think are the risks of audit sampling in a governmental organization?

Module 7. Emerging Issues in Fraud Detection and Investigative Audit

• Introduction exercise: Peer discussion on what participants think about the current framework of fraud detection. 
• The evolving risk in cybersecurity
• Artificial intelligence in fraud detection
• Sustainable corporate governance
• The relationship between forensic audit and sustainable corporate governance
• Political interference in government fraud detection
• Third-party protection in digital investigative auditing

Lessons Learned

“Investigative audit makes the difference between the success or failure of your institution because everyone is hiding something where money is involved,” Anonymous.

If corporate fraud in a company like Enron could bring down the firm, could fraud in the government bring the whole country to its knees? Investigative audit is useful because merely looking for mistakes in the financial statements is similar to hunting for bugs in the forest. Completing this course should enable you to realize that fraud detection and corporate governance runs all institutional dealings. By now, you should have learned the meaning of the terms “forensic audit” and “fraud mitigation”, how to raise an ethical organization, and decided how you want to apply your fraud detection, investigative audit and corrective action knowledge. As a brand of this esteemed course, you are sufficiently-equipped to conquer fraud detection and investigative audit issues.