🧵10) Each part is essential, and understanding how each works within the whole helps bring clarity. If your church has an audit periodically, I'd not discourage that. Just be aware that an annual audit alone doesn't provide as much protection as you may think. /END/

🧵9) The point is that while annual audits are helpful, alone they are insufficient to ensure proper governance. Boards must do their part providing the necessary oversight of executive leadership who, in turn, must do their part to set the tone at the top.

🧵8) For those unfamiliar w/Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act, that law created incentives by requiring the SEC &the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to pay awards to whistleblowers who provide original info that leads to a successful enforcement action with sanctions over $1M.

🧵7) Only about 56% have anti-fraud policy employee support programs, 55% have fraud training for employees and 52% have fraud training for managers & executives. And only 13% have any sort of rewards program for whistleblowers.

🧵6) As part of their efforts to prevent fraud, about 83% of organizations have an annual audit of their financial statements. 81% have a code of conduct for their employees, and 79% have an internal audit department. Certainly, all of these are good and helpful.

🧵5) Instead, it should be a warning about the importance of proper internal controls, organizations habitually practicing good governance, and appropriate transparency to stakeholders.

Having shared these statistics, here are a few others:

🧵4) All of those methods rank ahead of the formal, professional audit, which, according to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, only catches financial fraud about 4% of the time. Please don't read that as an indictment of professional auditors!

🧵3) Next is the internal audit, which only catches about 15% of this behavior in organizations. This is followed by management review at 12%. Accidental discovery accounts for 5% of times this behavior is brought to light.

🧵2) The most common method of detecting this kind of activity is by a tip (43% reporting on average). In fact, in organizations with a reporting hotline, 49% come from a tip but that declines to 31% in organizations without a reporting hotline.

Alas, there is no Constitutional restriction...

Impeachment in the House is simply an indictment. What is required is conviction; the Senate voted to acquit both times.