Skip to main content
 This program is not active.
Webcast Replay

2017 Winter Seminar: Fraud Risk and Ethics


Total Credits: 7 including 7 CPE

Speaker:
David L Cotton, CPA, CFE, CGFM
Duration:
7 Hours 33 Minutes
Format:
Audio and Video
License:

Dates


Tags: AGA Produced


Description

Presentations by David L. Cotton, CPA, CFE, CGFM

Agenda

8:30 - 10:10 Fraud Risk Management & COSO: Past, Present & Future

10:10 - 10:25 Morning Break

10:25 - 11:45 GAO’s Fraud Risk Management Framework

11:45 - 12:45 Lunch on your own

12:45 - 2:00 Resolving Ethical Dilemmas—You Make the Call

2:00 - 2:15 Afternoon Break

2:15 - 3:55 Was It Fraud? If So, Who Did It?

3:55 - 4:00 Closing Comments 

 

Fraud Risk Management & COSO: Past, Present & Future [100 minutes]

The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) began its existence with a focus on fraud. Soon, however, COSO shifted its attention to internal controls. ALL publicly-traded US companies (as well as most other organizations around the world) follow the COSO Internal Control Framework (ICF), initially published in 1992. COSO returned to its fraudfocused roots when it revised the ICF in 2013. COSO added 17 important principles, including Principle 8: The organization considers the potential for fraud in assessing risks to the achievement of objectives. In response to COSO-follower needs for further guidance on assessing fraud risk, COSO (along with the ACFE) published a new Fraud Risk Management Guide in September 2016. This session will explain what this new fraud risk management guidance requires, what it portends for accountability professionals working for corporations and other organizations, and what it will mean for auditors. Every organization that uses the COSO ICF will benefit from this presentation on this important new guidance.

 

GAO’s Fraud Risk Management Framework [75 minutes]

Fraud risk in government and governmental programs is different than fraud risk in the commercial sector. And managing this risk in government and governmental programs requires a different approach. To this end, the Government Accountability Office published a Fraud Risk Management Framework in 2015. The 2016 Fraud Reduction and Data Analytics Act now requires Federal agencies to incorporate the leading practices GAOs Framework. These concepts, principles, and leading practices are equally applicable to state and local governmental organizations. This session will explain how and why fraud risk in government is different and provide an overview of the GAO Fraud Risk Management Framework. 

 

Resolving Ethical Dilemmas-You Make the Call [75 minutes]

If you said to a group of accountability professionals, “raise your hand if you are ethical,” every hand would go up. Why, then, do we have ethical failures? One answer is that not everyone can agree on the “right” course of action to take in every situation. This session will explore several potential ethical dilemmas to determine how and why trained accountability professionals sometimes (often?) run afoul of our ethics principles.

 

Was It Fraud? If So, Who Did It? [100 minutes]

Fraud is characterized by deceit, deception, concealment, trickery, lies, cover-up, and often collusion. Should auditors really be expected to find fraud? Two powerful forensic tools can be used in finding fraud: fraud brainstorming and expanded fraud inquiries. This session will focus on the best ways to employ these two tools and discuss the skills needed to apply them effectively. The session will conclude with an in-depth case study exercise designed to give participants hands-on experience in applying both tools. Was a seemingly very successful not-for-profit organization the victim of one or more fraud perpetrators? If so, who did it, and how? 

 

Handouts

Speaker

David L Cotton, CPA, CFE, CGFM's Profile

David L Cotton, CPA, CFE, CGFM Related Seminars and Products

COTTON & COMPANY LLP


Dave Cotton is chairman of Cotton & Company LLP, Certified Public Accoun­tants, headquartered in Alexan­dria, Virginia.  The firm was founded in 1981 and has a practice concentration in assist­ing Federal and State government agencies, inspectors general, and government grantees and contractors with a variety of govern­ment program-related assurance and advisory services.  Cotton & Company has performed grant and contract, indirect cost rate, financial statement, financial related, and performance audits for more than two dozen Federal inspectors general as well as numer­ous other Federal and State agencies and programs. 

Cotton & Company’s Federal agency audit clients have included the U.S. Government Accountability Office, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Capitol Police, U.S. Small Business Administration, U.S. Bureau of Prisons, Millennium Challenge Corporation, U.S. Marshals Service, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.  Cotton & Company also assists numerous Federal agencies in preparing financial statements and improving financial management, accounting, and internal control systems.

Dave received a BS in me­chanical engineering (1971) and an MBA in management science and labor rela­tions (1972) from Lehigh University in Bethle­hem, PA.  He also pursued gradu­ate studies in accounting and auditing at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business (1977 to 1978).  He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), and Certified Government Financial Manager (CGFM).

Dave served on the Advisory Council on Government Auditing Standards (the Council advises the United States Comptroller General on promulgation of Government Auditing Standards—GAO’s yellow book) from 2006 to 2009.  He served on the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Anti-Fraud Programs and Controls Task Force and co-authored Managing the Business Risk of Fraud: A Practical Guide.  He served on the American Institute of CPAs Anti-Fraud Task Force and co-authored Management Override: The Achilles Heel of Fraud Prevention. Dave is the past-chair of the AICPA Federal Accounting and Auditing Subcommittee and has served on the AICPA Gov­ernmental Accounting and Auditing Com­mit­tee and the Government Technical Standards Subcom­mittee of the AICPA Profes­sional Ethics Execu­tive Commit­tee.  Dave chaired the Fraud Risk Management Task Force, sponsored by COSO and the ACFE and is a principal author of the COSO-ACFE Fraud Risk Management Guide.  He is presently serving on the AICPA’s Performance Audit Standards Task Force.

Dave served on the board of the Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants (VSCPA) and on the VSCPA Litigation Services Committee, Professional Ethics Committee, Quality Review Committee, and Governmental Accounting and Auditing Committee.  He is a member of the Association of Government Accountants (AGA) and past-advisory board chairman and past-president of the AGA Northern Virginia Chapter.  He is also a member of the Institute of Internal Auditors and the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.

Dave has testified as an expert in governmental accounting, auditing, and fraud issues before the United States Court of Federal Claims and other administrative and judicial bodies. 

Dave has spoken frequently on cost accounting, professional ethics, and auditors’ fraud detection responsibilities under SAS 99, Consideration of Fraud in a Financial Statement Audit.  He has been an instructor for the George Washington University masters of accountancy program (Fraud Examination and Forensic Accounting), and has instructed for the George Mason University Small Business Development Center (Fundamentals of Accounting for Government Contracts). 

Dave was the recipient of the AGA’s 2006 Barr Award (“to recognize the cumulative achievements of private sector individuals who throughout their careers have served as a role model for others and who have consistently exhibited the highest personal and professional standards”) as well as AGA’s 2012 Educator Award (“to recognize individuals who have made significant contributions to the education and training of government financial managers”).