Whistleblower hotline A whistleblower is a person working within an organization who reports misconduct. In most cases, the misconduct reported by the whistleblower violates a law and threatens the public in one way or another, though any form of misconduct may be reported. There have been many famous whistleblower cases in the United States. One of the most notable involved Enron, a corporation that caused millions of people to lose money in their financing fraud. Typically, the hotline takes the form of a dedicated telephone number that can be called to report every type of suspected fraud. The aim of the whistleblower hotline is to provide a means for citizens to alert authorities to suspected economic fraud without placing themselves in any type of danger.

Some corporations have chosen to establish this type of hotline for internal use, making it possible for people within the organization to report suspicious behavior without being in fear of losing their jobs. When a tip is received from a whistleblower, the information is investigated, making it possible to determine if there is in fact any type of fraudulent activity taking place. Besides a traditional telephone communications, there is also the option of use of email transmissions. Individuals who believe there is reason to suspect that some sort of fraud is taking place can set up an anonymous email account, then use the account to send an email to the address provided by the hotline that outlines the suspected activity. An alternative is a web site that allows messages to be typed in and forwarded to the email address without requiring the sender to provide any type of identification.

Provision for anonymity to any individual who willingly comes forward to report a suspicion of fraud is a key to encouraging such reporting and should be a component of the organizations policy. The most effective whistleblower hotlines preserve the confidentiality of callers and provide assurance to employees that they will not be retaliated against for reporting their suspicions of wrongdoing including wrongdoing by their superiors. Another key is demonstrating that their reporting will result in appropriate and timely action being taken. The whistleblower process should be independently evaluated periodically for effectiveness, including compliance with established protocols 5.2 Process controls Process controls specifically designed to detect fraudulent activity include: physical inspections/counts, reconciliations, independent reviews, analyses, and audits. Each industry is susceptible to different types of fraud schemes. 22 Anti-Fraud Strategy

Technical Note ACCID Particularly difficulty will meet the organizations with multiple and different business units which will need to first perform a broad organization wide assessment and then perform more detailed and focused assessments of individual business units to identify the necessary process controls to detect fraud.