Protiviti seminar on Fraud Risk focused on human aspects

The seminar was run by the recently established office of Protiviti's member firm in Qatar.

Protiviti is a global consulting firm that helps companies solve problems in finance, operations, technology, governance, risk, compliance and internal controls.

Protiviti's office in Qatar specializes in providing internal audit, risk advisory, technology consulting, fraud, investigation and litigation support, business consulting, corporate finance and transaction services.

The session was opened by Mr. Hassan Al-Mulla, President of IIA Qatar who commented, "The Middle East is not immune to fraud risk exposure particularly due to workforce sourced from across the world. What is needed is effective mechanism, good processes and technical expertise to fight fraud."

Mr. Hassan Al-Mulla welcomed Protiviti speakers Mr. Andrew North, Managing Partner for Qatar and Mr. Simon Padgett, Head of Forensic Services for Middle East region.

"Traditional Fraud prevention is based on internal controls," said Mr. Andrew North. "Tonight we introduce a new approach that focuses on human aspects, identifying traits that fraudsters typically display. This 'Profiling the Fraudster' could identify potential fraudsters as part of HR interview screening before they enter an organization," Andrew continued.

The Forensic team of Protiviti Middle East is led by Simon Padgett, a seasoned UK Forensic Accountant. He took participants through a gripping session on fraud perpetrated by human beings and measures to prevent it. The seminar mixed identification of occupational frauds by human beings, behavioral traits of such fraudsters, examination of internal controls and gaps in those controls, characteristics of high risk organizations and drilling down the data.

Some startling examples of fraudulent cases witnessed by organizations and overview of fraud detection and control frameworks including Fraud Triangle, Fraud Diamond, Iceberg of Dishonesty made the Protiviti expert's session highly interesting and invited a lot of questions, suggestions and discussions from the inquisitive audiences.