What would you do if you suspected a co$-$worker was stealing? Would you confront them or tell your employer or the authorities? Would you keep quiet if you feared losing your job? What to do about suspected fraud is an ethical question facing not just those working in the accounting field, but employees in any role. Workplace fraud can take many forms. It could be an employee forging a cheque or stealing inventory. But it could also be an executive who falsifies financial information to make their department$$s sales figure look better, to meet company targets and collect a bonus, or to keep their job. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, the average occupational fraud committed worldwide in $2019$ caused a median loss of US$$125,000.$

Organizations need to send a strong message that they won$$t tolerate fraud. One way of doing that is to protect and encourage employees who suspect fraud and report it to their employers. The federal government and most provinces in Canada have enacted their own public employee protection legislation. Another way to discourage fraud is to set up an internal crime hotline for employees to report suspected wrongdoing. When fraud is not reported, everyone is potentially harmed, not just the employer. Colleagues may lose jobs, customers may be misled, and shareholders and the public will lose trust in the accuracy of financial information.

Consider the following scenario: Jennifer is an accountant who works for Currie Financial Services Company. Currie has recently been given the opportunity to provide financial services to a large transportation company but Currie must compete against other financial service companies. Jennifer$$s boss has instructed her to prepare a presentation for the transportation company and include some performance statistics that he created. The potential client wants reassurance that whichever financial services provider it chooses will be in business a long time to serve its needs. Consequently, it wants to see financial figures from bidders that show they have been profitable over several years. Jennifer knows that the financial figures her boss wants her to show the potential client do not reflect Currie$$s actual performance but her boss told her they must $$get that contract at all costs.$$ He also said that those statistics are $$likely to reflect actual performance in the future.