In recent months, a growing number of public and private sector organisations have made headlines for procurement fraud—ranging from inflated invoices and ghost vendors to insider collusion and abuse of delegated financial authority. These high-profile incidents are more than reputational crises; they’re control failures hiding in plain sight.

For boards and CFOs, the message is clear: Don’t wait for an investigation to expose weaknesses. Act now.

What Procurement Fraud Reveals About Your Controls

Fraud isn’t just a moral failing—it’s a signal that internal controls are either non-existent, unenforced, or easily bypassed. Red flags in the recent cases we’ve seen include:

• Lack of segregation between procurement, payment, and vendor onboarding
• Manual processes that enable invoice manipulation
• Poorly monitored purchasing thresholds and delegated authority
• Infrequent or ineffective audits of vendor legitimacy and spend trends
• Over-reliance on individual approvers without independent oversight

These are not theoretical risks—they are real vulnerabilities that allow fraud to flourish.

5 Steps to Proactively Strengthen Your Financial Controls

At Cybertech Risk Consultants, we work with organisations to identify and close these gaps before they’re exploited. Here’s how:

1. Conduct a Procurement and Payments Control Review
   Map end-to-end processes—from purchase requisition to payment—and assess against best practices (e.g., COSO, ISO 37001 for anti-bribery, and local treasury compliance requirements).
2. Digitise and Automate Approval Workflows
   Remove manual handoffs and enforce multi-tiered approval logic through workflow engines that prevent fraud by design.
3. Use Data Analytics to Detect Anomalies
   Leverage spend analysis and forensic reporting to flag duplicate vendors, split invoices, round-dollar transactions, or outlier spending patterns.
4. Segregate Duties and Rotate Authorisations
   Ensure no one individual has control over end-to-end procurement and payment processes. Rotate responsibilities and audit delegation logs.
5. Validate Vendor Legitimacy Periodically
   Perform regular vendor health and authenticity checks—including ABN/GST verification, banking confirmations, and usage history audits.

Avoid Being the Next Case Study

Procurement fraud isn’t new—but the speed at which it’s exposed in today’s digital and regulatory environment is. The cost isn’t just financial—it’s reputational, legal, and cultural.

A strong financial control environment is your first and best defence.

Cybertech Risk Consultants partners with CFOs, procurement leaders, and CIOs to strengthen internal controls with a mix of governance, automation, and assurance.

Let’s get ahead of the risk—before the headlines do.