Assurance News

GASB LOOKS TO IMPROVE PENSION STANDARDS

Norwalk, Conn. - The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has issued a document outlining its preliminary views on how to improve pension accounting and financial reporting by government employers. The approach presented in the preliminary views would move governmental pension accounting and reporting away from the funding orientation that now exists, and instead introduce recognition and measurement standards that would be based on GASB's conceptual framework, including information that would help financial statement users better assess the degree to which inter-period equity has been achieved.

The document is available for download at www.gasb.org. The deadline for submitting comments is Sept. 17, 2010. GASB will host public hearings on the issue in Dallas, San Francisco and New York in mid-October.

FRAUD COSTS COMPANIES AN AVERAGE OF $105K

Austin, Texas - The median fraud loss for U.S. organizations is $105,000, according to a new study by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, with billing and corruption schemes the most common types of fraud reported.

Among the 1,021 U.S. cases in the study, the median fraud loss was $105,000. Billing schemes were present in 27.6 percent of these cases, while corruption was reported in 21.9 percent. While 46.2 percent of U.S. frauds in the study were committed by lower-level employees who caused a median fraud loss of $50,000, it was the 17.1 percent of frauds committed by owners and executives that did the most damage, with a median loss of $485,000. Another 36.7 percent of frauds committed by managers had a median loss of $150,000.

Anonymous fraud hotlines have made a major impact, with 37.8 percent of the U.S. frauds in the study detected through tips. Management review detected 17.1 percent, and internal audit detected 13.7 percent of the frauds.

The "2010 Report to the Nations" is available online at www.acfe.com/rttn.

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