Question

A Forman of a construction company is responsible for a construction crew comprised of many unskilled workers. The work is hard, and employee turnover rate is high with individuals often leaving without notice. Throughout the work week employees record their attendance on separate time cards, which the foreman approves and submits to the payroll department at the end of week. Based on the time cards, the payroll department prepares the paychecks, sends them to the foreman who then distributes the checks to his work crew. Required Identify the segregation of duties problems in the system. What sorts of fraud may result from the above control problem(s)

Answer 1

Solution :

In the context, it is given that foreman in a construction company is responsible for the workers who are unskilled labors.

1. The segregation of the duties which involves the separation of the main functions and have them to conducted by the different workers. But here in this case, the approval of the attendance of the employees and the distribution of the checks to the worker are the important activities that are being conducted by a single employee.

2. This may result into frauds to the company. If the segregation of the duties is not implemented, then the company is at risk. This is because a single employee does the work for the approval of the attendance of the workers and distributing the checks to them for their work. So this can result in a fraud if the foreman wants to do fraud. But distributing the work among two employee will reduce the risk of fraud as one employee many not be willing to do fraud.