"In a small business battling to make a profit — especially in today’s economic climate — a small fraud committed could be their undoing," explains Fisher. "The lady I referred to earlier was stealing around R10 000 a month for a number of months — all with a R3000 petty cash float.

Myth 5: If there was any fraud the auditors would have picked it up

According to Fisher, auditors make it clear in their management letters that despite well-designed procedures, there is no guarantee that fraud will be detected during their interrogation of the financial statements.

"In similar fashion, internal audit serves to provide reasonable assurance that controls are working well enough to ensure that goals and objectives will be achieved. No assurance provider can provide absolute assurance, unless they had the time to scrutinise every single transaction that took place in the business."

So what is the next step? According to Mario Fazekas of EXACTTECH Fraud Prevention Solutions, the two cornerstones of any fraud prevention program are Ethics and Fraud Awareness Training. "If staff members do not know how the organization wants them to act, what the consequences are of acting unethically and how fraud losses impact their salaries, bonuses and jobs, they will continue to tolerate fraud and theft."

If one thinks about the increased financial pressure perceived by employees during an economic downturn, can organisations afford to allow this to happen?

"The general consensus is that the best way of managing fraud is to prevent it from happening in the first place. The implementation of some simple controls within an organisation can make it much more difficult for a fraudster to take advantage," concludes Fisher.