IPA IP 2023 Question 50
A question IPA Japan published in 令和5年度 ITパスポート試験 公開問題 問50, translated into English. ITPEC is based on the same exams.
In internal control, which of the following is the most appropriate example concerning segregation of duties for the purpose of preventing fraud?
Explanation
An applicant cannot approve his or her own application — segregation of duties gives incompatible roles to different people, so that no one can both commit and conceal fraud.
Duties such as applying, approving, executing and recording are split so that each person's work is checked by another. If the person who requests a payment or purchase could also approve it, a fraudulent request would pass with no one else seeing it. Making the approver someone other than the applicant puts a second person's check on every application, which is the mutual check that internal control relies on.
Answer (a)
Why not others:
- •(b) — one executive holding posts in both the applying and the approving department puts both roles in one person's hands, the opposite of segregation
- •(c) — dividing the same job among several staff shares the workload; no one's role is to check another's, so it does not prevent fraud
- •(d) — spreading a job over several departments distributes the work, but it does not separate incompatible roles such as application and approval
Key rule: Segregation of duties means the person who initiates a transaction is never the one who approves, executes or records it.
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This question comes from the past questions IPA Japan publishes, translated into English by ITPEC Practice. ITPEC Practice is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with IPA or ITPEC. See the original paper (PDF) or Report an issue.