Activity reporting

Summary

Prepare summary reports on activities for clients, managers or responsible staff.

Why this countermeasure matters

A lack of reporting on activities may result in:

• less transparency over actions and outcomes
• poor management of performance, decision-making and risk
• less action and accountability to prevent, detect and respond to fraud and corruption
• fraud or corrupt activity going unnoticed or unchallenged
• clients, public officials or contractors committing fraud, acting corruptly, and avoiding exposure
• confusion about requirements and accidental or reckless non-compliant conduct that may in turn lead to fraud.

How you might apply this countermeasure

Some ways to implement this countermeasure include:

• reports to managers and executives on:
  • program or administrative budgets and expenses
  • program claims, payments and other key performance indicators
  • staff attendance and allowances, such as overtime payments
  • project or contact performance
  • procurement and vendor payments.
• reports to clients and staff on:
  • changes to their accounts
  • program or organisational performance
  • program or organisational change
  • trends and issues.

How to check if your countermeasures are effective

Here are some ways to measure the effectiveness of this type of countermeasure:

• confirm that reports are actually produced and used
• review a sample of reports to determine if they are clear, relevant and would help someone detect fraud

• review data related to reports to see how often are they are reviewed
• confirm that reports are sent to or available to appropriate persons such as:
  • customers who can view reports on their online account
  • line managers who can receive an email
  • executives who review reports during committee meetings
• confirm that reports and data cannot be manipulated.