You work in a clinic as a receptionist and office manager. Another employee, Ms Tan, is in charge of the clinic's outsourced office operations, which included cash receipt collection, patient billing, check deposit, and monthly bank reconciliation. The doctor has no accounting or insurance payment knowledge and wishes to focus on his patients. Being a receptionist, you are too busy meeting patients, retrieving charts and answering phone calls, which leave Ms Tan to handles full office management responsibilities. Ms Tan is the mother of four children and is a single mother. She prioritizes giving her children the best possible care, and she enjoys the better things in life to the extent that she can afford them. Ms Tan works two jobs since her office manager position "never" comes up despite the extra work she has been doing all this while. Most patients who visit their doctor have insurance and only make payments for services not covered by the insurance. During a typical appointment, you overheard a patient conversing with her spouse while filling out some paperwork. "Have you got any money on you today, honey? This clinic prefers cash, and I forgot to stop by the ATM this morning." You felt this was a strange remark because you had never heard the clinic favor cash payments before. Furthermore, nothing you've seen or heard suggests that the doctor prefers cash as mode of payment. You're aware that, in addition to the payment covered by the insurance, Ms Tan bills the uninsured cost of service to the patient. The outstanding balance is then billed directly to the patient. You overheard Ms Tan grumble that "full payment cannot be collected from yet another patient" as you were filling out medical records. You are aware that due to the high number of uncollectible accounts, many accounts are written off each month.

a. Discuss on the success of the perpetration of fraud by Ms Tan according to the elements in Fraud Diamond Theory.

b. Describe three (3) internal controls that can be taken to avoid fraud in the clinic.

c. Propose any three (3) fraud deterrence measures that can be implemented to reduce likelihood of fraud.