The danger of preconceived ideas...

I have always had preconceived ideas about auditors.

I can’t help but get the mental picture of a faintly nerdy type person, with pocket protector, black rimmed spectacles and a huge variety of various writing instruments (all the pens writing in green ink of course).

My picture includes no discernable sense of humour, an absolute fixation with numbers, procedures and systems and a very inflexible approach to his calling.

And of course the obligatory latest and best HP10n do everything calculator.

So to sum up, rigid, obsessed with detail and systems, unpopular (I mean who in a company really LIKES an auditor?), humourless, with a HUGE set of blinkers that prevents him seeing anything out of the “system”.

But not very good with people, people do strange things unlike numbers and systems.

Am I wrong?

Of course I am I have placed all auditors in the stereotypical “auditor” box as people are want to do with any person or group of people that the come into contact with.

And my box is plainly wrong; I have met at least one auditor who has a vague resemblance to a normal human being!

We categorise and “box” people all the time, it is part of our hard wired methods of dealing with the people we meet.

We do this because having people in the “right boxes” makes life more certain, it allows us to deal with people more comfortably, we think that it allows us to understand people better.

This practice, although very, very widespread is also very dangerous.

He is in the “auditor” box so we immediately expect his appearance to match our expectations, we expect him to act in a certain way, and we think we understand him.

The real problem arises because auditors in their turn “box” fraudsters. They are all crooks, have no conscience, are bad people, are to be despised, are dishonest, have no ethics and so and so on.

One of the questions that I am most often asked is “can we recognise a fraudster?” Is there some common characteristics, a “look” we should watch out for?”

This is total nonsense, of course not, just as the “typical” auditor does not exist, so the “typical” fraudster does not exist.

It is all in your preconceived picture, your “box” of what a fraudster should look and act like.

How many times have you heard “I can’t believe it, he does not look like a fraudster”?

This happens because people expect a fraudster to have some or other very distinctive “look” about him.

There is the danger that auditors fall into the trap of not really paying attention to certain people because they don’t fall into their preconceived notion of what a fraudster looks like, how a fraudster is meant to behave, what his background, education, place of residence or whatever should be.

Auditors often overlook people based either on their position in the company, their status or position in society.

They think that they don’t have to look at Fred to closely, I mean he is a lay preacher, a pillar of the community and a director of the company, he would NEVER do anything wrong.

Fred is in the “good person” box not the “fraudster” box so Fred is given a pass.

Boxes are for gifts, goods, Valentine chocolates, not people.

Stop putting people in boxes, no possible good can ever come from it.

Auditors must approach the tricky issue of people with an open mind.

They should treat everyone with the same care and circumspection no matter who he is, what position he occupies, his status in the company or society should never effect their judgement.

Every single one of us WILL commit fraud if the motive, opportunity and justification are acceptable to us.

Let me give you an example; you have a child who is suffering from an exotic disease and is near death. The treatment is only available in Switzerland and is very expensive. You do not have the money and you cannot raise it anywhere. You see an opportunity at work to “take” the money with very little risk. And of course you will repay it as soon as you can.

What do you do?

Take the money or do you let your child die?

The bottom line is that ANYBODY is capable of committing fraud.

Your job is to trust nobody, suspect everybody, and take nobody at face value.

Auditors must pay very close attention to their people skills. They must develop them, hone them and practice looking behind the facade that people put up.

Auditors must learn the “people skills” that fraudsters have perfected in order to properly practice their profession.

This is the only way that you can serve your client’s best interests.

Auditing, not a pleasant, comfortable job, but you chose it.

Right?

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