A COMMUNITY EARLY LEARNING AUSTRALIA SIMPLE GUIDE
Thinking the unthinkable...
It's hard to imagine that someone you trust is stealing from your organisation, perhaps directly from the families and children.
1 PAYROLL FRAUD
- 'ghost', employee is created, or ex-staff kept on payroll: salaries go to the fraudster's account. - superannuation or union payments shown on payslips but sent to another account 2 PURCHASE FRAUD
- purchase orders to fake suppliers, or fake orders to real suppliers: payments go to fraudster's account - the supplier invoices inflated amounts, kickbacks are paid to the fraudster
Yet every few months in Australia there's a court hearing for fraud in an early learning or school setting. The culprit might be a long-serving employee, a junior trainee, or a volunteer. They might be your boss, or someone in head office, or an external supplier. In one recent case, the accused had a medal for community service!
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We consulted the experts for ways to help you spot fraud in your education service and, most importantly, to prevent it happening. This Simple Guide shows you FOUR places you might find fraud in an education service, and EIGHT ways you can prevent it.
places to find fraud in an early or middle childhood education organisation
Adapted from Australian sources including this excellent material at CPA Australia http://bit.ly/CELAFraudGuide
3 PETTY GAINS
Inflate petty cash or travel claims. Fake time sheets for additional hours. Use office equipment to support a sidebusiness, like printing colour resource templates for sale. Keep charity donations. 4 THE OVER-ORDER
Excessive orders for play or craft equipment, food, nappies or cleaning supplies are made, the fraudster arranges 'returns' but keeps the goods for personal use or re-sale.