Each of the following situations has an internal control weakness.

a. Jade Applications’ has decided that one way to cut costs in the upcoming year is to fire the external auditor. The business believes that the internal auditor should be able to efficiently monitor the company’s internal controls.

b. In an effort to minimize the amount of paperwork, Ross Homes has decided that it will not keep copies of customer invoices related to sales revenue. Ross believes that this effort will minimize the amount of data storage the company will have to pay for.

c. Elle Bee, a trusted employee for many years, has never taken a vacation. The owner believes that he’s lucky that she is so committed to her job.

d. The Medicine Chest Company keeps a small petty cash fund to handle small cash transactions. Because no one wants to volunteer to be the custodian, the business manager has decided that all employees should have access to the petty cash. She figures that as long as each employee fills out a petty cash ticket, then there are proper controls in place.

e. Due to the cost of maintaining the security cameras, Wings and More has decided that it will remove the cameras that monitor the cash register.

f. Bryan Miller, manager of Hardware Emporium, prides himself on hiring exceptionally skilled employees who need no training to do their jobs.

Requirements

1. Identify the missing internal control characteristics in each situation.

2. Identify the possible problem caused by each control weakness.

3. Propose a solution to each internal control problem.