CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Fraud control is becoming an issue that the regulators and top business executives who are in saddle when fraudulent activities takes place or more succinctly when someone commit an act of fraud in the financial institutions under their management. It is quite clear that the installation of internal controls cannot be sufficient to eliminate dishonest activities, constantly rejigging of the controls already put in place to ensure that they are effective in reducing fraudulent activities in financial institutions from becoming successful should become important. Fraudulent activities are rampant in every organization but more rampant in business organizations. The acts of financial fraud has persisted in most firms in spite of strong internal controls put in place to forestall and control any planned intention to steal the business money. Strong controls that at times are antithetical to the efficient operations of the business having been put in place in certain cases but have not succeeded in reducing drastically the amount of funds lost. One of the reasons for the use and continuous revision of internal control systems in the bank is to ensure that losses occasioned by fraudulent activities are minimal if they occur, and attempts are discovered very early before losses can occur.
The triumvirate of fraud prevention, fraud control and detection are coalesced into the effective internal control system that the bank employs. The existence of internal audit in any organization is a means of controlling the incidence of errors, irregularities and frauds. Fraud is an intentional distortion of facts and figures; According to Howard (2002), the major role and responsibility of internal auditors is prevention and detection of fraud. Error is defined by Awe ( 2005) as unintentional mistakes in financial statements whether of a mathematical or clerical nature or whether in the application of accounting principles or whether due to oversight or misinterpretation of the relevant facts. Errors must be reduced to the barest minimum so as not to render the financial statement meaningless. The issue of fraud has become a serious food for thought for many corporate bodies nowadays. (Robertson and Louwers (2002): stated that fraud consists of knowingly making material misrepresentations of facts with the intent of inducing someone to believe the falsehood and act upon it and, thus, suffer a loss or damage. This definition encompasses all the ways people can lie, cheat, steal and dupe other people.It is therefore very important for business organization to have a separate department, which is referred to as the Internal Audit department to keep watch and monitor the activities in the system. Oseni (1994) and Lav (2004) stated that internal audit plays a vital role in enhancing corporate performance in organizations. It is on this backdrop that the study seeks to examine the role of internal auditors in fraud control in a business organization.
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