Many Auditors Counting on Their Sleuthing Skills
Picture an auditor and what might come to mind is a pencil-pushing bureaucrat with a calculator for brains.
But auditors these days are nearly as likely to engage in espionage as analyze budgets.
The combination of accounting know-how and sleuthing skills makes for a potent mix, and such specially trained auditors are being used more and more by state and local governments to investigate employees suspected of wrongdoing and fraud.
“Since you’re dealing with white-collar crime, the traditional investigator may not have the skills you need to accomplish those investigations,” said Kurt Sjoberg, California state auditor.
Those special skills came in handy, for instance, during an investigation of county workers four years ago in which county auditors painstakingly analyzed cash register receipts, then went undercover during a sting operation that resulted in several theft arrests, officials said.
Sometimes a little instruction is necessary to turn a certified public accountant into Sam Spade. “We have a history of being good at paperwork, but not with people,” said one county auditor-investigator.
So, the Florida-based Institute of Internal Auditors offered a three-day conference on fraud earlier this month that included seminars on how to interview and interrogate employees.
Conferees were taught that the initial interview with a suspect is more or less a fishing expedition to gain insight into the employee’s personality, said Brian Jayne, one of the instructors. That information may help during the next interview--an interrogation designed to elicit a confession when there is not quite enough evidence to determine guilt.
Interrogations typically begin with a 30-minute near-monologue in which the auditor suggests it is morally acceptable to steal at times, Jayne said. Sympathetic statements like “you must have really needed the money” are frequently repeated.
They are taught not to let an employee deny culpability, Jayne said. “The more you deny something, the more difficult it is to confess,” he said.
If an employee does launch into an emotional tirade, auditors are instructed to talk more slowly and softly to reassure him. They might move closer and watch for sobbing and other clear signs he is ready to confess.
The technique then is to weigh in with a final question like: “Did you take this money because you’re just greedy and you needed drugs, or because you were thinking about your family and acting out? I bet that’s all it was, right?”
Methods like these work about 75% of the time, Jayne said. But they have no effect, of course, on employees who exercise their legal right to refuse to be interrogated, he said.
