Advanced Auditing

In recent news, it was reported that General Electric, one of the largest manufacturing companies in the world reduced its accounts payable department from appx 400 employees to 180. Part of this decision was made based on management's decision not to compare the details of invoices with the support prior to payment to vendors. A consequence of this decision was that it increased AP processing time and greatly added to GE taking advantage of supplier discounts for early payment.

What are some of implications from financial statement reporting risk ?

What are potential internal controls you can recommend to mitigate some of these risks ?What about IT system controls ?