Author(s): SyazaNadhiraAbd Rahim, Rina Fadhilah Ismail, Roshayani Arshad, Saunah Zainon
Corporate fraud has impacted all kinds of organisations, regardless of their industry, size, and even profitability. Prior cases that emerged from the literature and the huge cost of fraud provide awareness of corporate dishonesty in the occurrence of these frauds in organisations. The purpose of this study is to examine perceived occupational fraud as to whether the existence of hotlines, ethics and surprise audits infused throughout the organisation will be able to reduce occupational fraud. A structured questionnaire was used to conduct a survey to 274 respondents who are currently working in public listed companies in Malaysia. This study examines the internal control mechanisms in reducing perceived occupational fraud as an attempt to recognise the research gap in prior research and literature besides discovering the extent of future research, specifically in Malaysia. The results imply that the implementation of hotlines, ethics training, and surprise audits has significant impacts on reducing perceived occupational fraud of the publicly listed companies in Malaysia. Consequently, it justifies undertaking this study as well as the basis for generating research questions and developing hypotheses. The results also showed that effective internal control mechanisms could diminish the possible occupational fraud from taking place. Hence, it is significant for the organisation to develop an effective internal control plan to obtain reasonable assurance in achieving its financial reporting objectives.