Henry Pleasant was treasurer of his church for 10 years. He received pledge contributions and plate collections, deposited cash, and maintained an accounting system designed specifically for church accounting on his micro- computer. One day Henry misplaced some pledge checks shortly before setting out to deposit them at the bank. Rather than admit the problem, he made some reversing journal entries in his accounting system to offset the entries for the cash receipts. He also falsified the pledge records to show that the checks had never been received. In fact, the checks had fallen into a trash can. Someone found the checks at the city dump and managed to cash them. A few months later, a wealthy church member (also a CPA) noticed that her quarterly pledge statement did not reflect a check that had been cashed. After calling the treasurer and receiving a convoluted reply, she contacted the minister who ordered an investigation. An auditor discovered the original and reversing entries. Henry tried to explain that he had made a mistake and attempted to cover it up, but he had no explanation as to how the checks had been cashed. Nobody believed his story, and Henry was accused of theft. The total amount of the checks was no more than a few hundred dollars, and the church decided not to prosecute. Henry was not bonded. However, he was fired as treasurer and publicly disgraced for "stealing from the Lord." Thought Questions: 1. How could Henry have protected himself in this situation? 2. What kind of controls should the organization have had in place to ensure that the contributions were all deposited properly