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The risk of cheque fraud is serious for companies that maintain bank accounts with a high volume of chequing activity. Sophisticated criminals could create convincing replicas of a company's cheques, or steal blank cheques from the company and forge the necessary signatures. In some cases, employees entrusted with clearing accounts payables embezzle company funds by writing cheques to dummy payees and cashing the cheques with false identifications. By the time the fraud is discovered, the criminals and the money are usually long gone, and the bank and the company are left to argue over who should bear the loss.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it describes the nature of internal controls (IC) in Christian and Hindu religious organizations (ROs) in Trinidad and Tobago. Second, the paper provides an assessment of the relative comprehensiveness of IC among the ROs examined and offers tentative explanations for the findings. Most of the information used in the paper was collected by conducting structured interviews with the chief financial officer(s) of each RO. This information was supplemented by published studies. The findings indicate that the ROs as a group have inadequate and patchy IC systems. Conversely, all the ROs examined had implemented many of the basic foundational elements of an effective IC system. This suggests that they could significantly improve the quality of their IC systems by instituting some fairly minor and cheap practices. The implications of these findings for administrators and researchers of ROs are discussed.

In this study, a panel of 74,128 Italian SMEs was analyzed to verify whether any syndromes could be identified and defined through financial ratios. Defining relevant syndromes (i.e. the set of correlated signs and symptoms often associated with a particular disorder) can be of importance for assessing which specific intervention can solve a firm's difficulties.

To identify the main syndromes involved in company defaults, firstly, financial data on defaulted firms for each of the main economic sectors were examined through a cluster analysis; the results obtained for each sector were then compared to verify whether syndromes recur across sectors. Finally, the effects of each syndrome were compared with possible default causes, as described by previous literature.

Results show that a significant share of corporate insolvencies is characterized by a set of recurrent signs and symptoms so that the main syndromes can be identified. The results also show that these syndromes recur across sectors, even if specific values characterize each sector.

The approach adopted in this study sets a new direction for the analysis of default risk, as the study shows that certain key syndromes can be defined and described, and the study suggests that different problems can induce different risk patterns. Further analyses of other samples could confirm whether the same syndromes recur over countries and over time.

This is the first study aimed at identifying and describing the syndromes affecting SMEs, conducted by means of balance-sheet ratios.

The disappearance of the offence of fraudulently misusing a document signed in blank (abus de blanc‐seing) in the new penal code has raised the question of the statutory basis of prosecutions that were based on the former s. 407 of the criminal code. (This read: ‘Whoever, misusing a document signed in blank, fraudulently writes on it an obligation or discharge, or any other matter that may compromise the person or financial standing of the signatory, shall be subject to the penalties stated in section 405. In the event that the document signed in blank shall not have been delivered to him, he shall be prosecuted as a forger and punished as such.’)

In the midst of the Watergate revelations, Congressional support for President Nixon's Trade Bill—which would give him unprecedented executive powers—appears to be on the wane.

Using the backdrop of an (apparently) extended visit to the West Indies, analogies with key concerns of internal audit are drawn. An unusual and refreshing way of exploring the main themes ‐ a discussion between Bill and Jack on tour in the islands ‐ forms the debate. Explores the concepts of control, necessary procedures, fraud and corruption, supporting systems, creativity and chaos, and building a corporate control facility.

Using the backdrop of an (apparently) extended visit to the West Indies, analogies with key concerns of internal audit are drawn. An unusual and refreshing way of exploring the main themes ‐ a discussion between Bill and Jack on tour in the islands ‐ forms the debate. Explores the concepts of control, necessary procedures, fraud and corruption, supporting systems, creativity and chaos, and building a corporate control facility.