CP 7-2 Internal controls The following is an excerpt from a conversation between
ID: 2445439 • Letter: C
Question
CP 7-2 Internal controls
The following is an excerpt from a conversation between two sales clerks, Jean Moen and Sara Cheney. Jean and Sara are employed by Turpin Meadows Electronics, a locally owned and operated electronics retail store.
Jean: Did you hear the news?
Sara: What news?
Jean: Neal and Linda were both arrested this morning.
Sara: What? Arrested? You’re putting me on
Jean: No, really! The police arrested them first thing this morning. Put them in handcuffs, read them their rights the whole works. It was unreal
Sara: What did they do?
Jean: Well, apparently they were filling out merchandise refund forms for fictitious customers and then taking the cash.
Sara: I guess I never thought of that. How did they catch them?
Jean: The store manager noticed that returns were twice that of last year and seemed to be increasing. When he confronted
Neal, he became flustered and admitted to taking the cash, apparently over $9,000 in just three months. They’re going over the last six months’ transactions to try to determine how much Linda stole. She apparently started stealing first.
Suggest appropriate control procedures that would have prevented or detected the theft of cash.
Explanation / Answer
The appropriate control procedures that would have prevented or detected the theft of cash are as follows:
1. Safeguard assets from employee theft,robbery and unauthorized access.
2. Assignment of responsibility to specific individuals only.
3.Segregation of duties.
4.Physical Verification of cash,refund forms and customers ID.Verification should be made periodically or on a
surprise basis.
5.Bonding of employees who handle cash