Please response to the below discussion about fraud and give your opinion how to prevent fraud in organizations and protect shareholders equities.

Discussion

Company Background

Waste Management Inc. Founded by Larry Beck in 1894. Is a North American company offering environmental waste management to over 20 million customers in America, Canada and Puerto Rico. Waste Management went through a massive financial fraud between the years 1992 - 1997 committed by its senior officers. Since the company's revenue were increasing at a slow rate, the senior officers decided to avoid some pertinent expenses off their financial statement to show a larger profit, some the items they neglected to report were:

Details of the Fraud Committed:

Avoid Reporting Deprecation Expenses on their garbage trucks

Assigned salvage values to other assets that previously had with no salvage value

Refrain from recording expenses for any decreased in the value of landfills

Did not record necessary expenses to write off the costs of unsuccessful discarded landfills developments projects

Improperly capitalize of variety of expenses

Increase environmental reserves to avoid irrelevant operating expenses

Preventive Measures:

Hired a Certified Fraud Examiners (CFE), or Certified Public Accounts (CPA) or Certified Financial Forensics (CFF) - any of these professional can provide a wide range of services and complete financial control audit and are bound to professionalism and ethics.

Corporation should continuously implement controls and the required compliance that comes with it such as interactions with external and internal auditors.

Continuous monitoring activities including internal control, reviews, internal audit and segregation of duties. Such as the person who collects the cheques should not be the one who deposit it at the bank.

Most importantly, actively involve internal control and anti-fraud professionals during the integration process (i.e. planning, strategy integration meetings and discussions). These experts can perform risk assessments and identify leading indicators of weakening controls. They also can provide advice on remediation. Their involvement sends messages to the rest of the management team, and the whole organization overall, that the company continues to adhere to its internal control structure.

Conclusion:

Since the fraud was carry out by the company top executive - it was easily cover up and quite difficult to ditech, the shareholders and board of director's members should actively involve internal control and anti-fraud professional who can provide make risk assessments and identify weakening controls.

Reference:

http://www.resolver.com/blog/what-c-sox-means-for-canadian-companies/

http://www.resolver.com/blog/what-c-sox-means-for-canadian-companies/