As the reality of the economic impact of coronavirus sinks in, you need to explore cost-cutting alternatives.

As part of the #coronavirus recovery strategy, leaders of businesses have been conducting a business assessment to identify possible revenue leakages in terms of process redundancy and inefficiency, time, and resource wastages in unnecessary procedures and control weaknesses leading to theft and or fraud losses.

One of the silent areas that lead to revenue leakage is unproductive staff on the payroll. We call them the ‘corporate fat.’ This is where the payroll is bloated by staff who do not put in their best – always coming late at work, staying long in the office doing private work and business on company resources and stationery, carry glasses empty of motivation and keep discouraging colleagues.

Of course, some staff are outstanding and fantastic. That is good.

We know key departments like fraud risk management and integrity promotion team could have been affected. Such departments are expensive to set up and operate internally. You need a highly qualified expert with at least 10 or more years of experience if you are to gain value. Also, you must then suffer from the recruitment process, background check, and ongoing staff “motivation” management initiatives. Yet in these coronavirus times, you need people who are already motivated. People who are passionate about their work and can push themselves to achieve. Work from home remotely without the need for stringent monitoring and supervision. People who appreciate their work and have the experience and time to deliver. To get a person like that would cost you at least US $4,000 monthly gross salary.

But that is a huge cost at this time.

At Summit Consulting, we have assembled a fraud risk and integrity assurance team for select companies willing to thrive. Take note that:

1. When it comes to fraud risk, prevention is better than cure! We will conduct monthly integrity engagements with your top management team focusing on breaking the causes of fraud as articulated in the fraud triangle theory, with emphasis on motive and rationalization – that is integrity-related which cannot be fixed by controls, yet over 85% of company governance processes focus on removing opportunity by tightening internal control environment
2. Most occupational fraudsters are first time offenders. They have never been convicted or punished for fraud-related conduct. To this end, we shall work with management to identify the key staff or the staff in charge of critical processes like sales, IT, HR, and Finance, among others. And depending on their business criticality, conduct on-going background checks and personal wealth monitor to reduce the risk of abuse of trust. To do this, we shall:
   1. Conduct annual fraud risk assessments and integrity surveys to give you a current fraud risk posture – low, medium, or high – and mitigations to implement
   2. Work with management to implement prioritized interventions to manage the fraud risk
   3. Conduct monthly integrity and personal finance talks to enable people to live within their means in these covid19 times.
   4. Offer bi-monthly status updates of progress
3. Our approach is to focus on the human side of the business. Staff lack financial discipline. They live beyond their means. We will enter your staff’s brains and teach them about personal financial discipline and empower your staff to manage their finances and thrive

In hard times like these, people tend to become susceptible to fraud in case opportunities present themselves. So, you must stay alert. And indeed, our forensic lab at Summit Consulting Ltd has registered increased case volume of theft and corporate fraud to survive. And people have motives and rationalization.

To save money and create an environment of respect NOT suspicion of your team members, contact us today to discuss this further. We are willing to even train your internal team to do this work as part of knowledge transfer.

However, when times are tight, the focus should be on revenue generation as we help you stop any leakages.

By Mustapha B Mugisa, Mr. Strategy is a team leader at Summit Consulting Ltd.

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