The United States General Accounting Office ( GAO) Office of
Special Investigations was responsible for investigating a potential purchase
fraud case. The man who allegedly committed the fraud was Mark J. Krenik, a
former civilian employee of the U. S. Air Force.

Mr. Krenik was the Air Force’s technical representative on
contracts with Hughes STX. Hughes STX provided hardware, software maintenance,
tech-nical support, and training to the Air Force. Part of Mr. Krenik’s alleged
fraud included opening accounts under his control at banks in Maryland. The
account was opened under the same names Hughes STX and ST Systems Corporation
at the Vienna, Virginia post office box.

On
December 15, 1992, Mr. Krenik opened post office box 215 in Vienna, Virginia,
in his own name. On December 24, 1992, Mr. Krenik delivered to the Air Force
Finance Office 11 bogus invoices totaling $504,941.19. Accompanying the
invoices were the respective DD-250s, on which Mr. Krenik had falsely certified
that work had been performed and deliveries made. Special instructions included
on the invoices directed that payments be remitted to ST Systems Corporation at
the Vienna, Virginia, post office box.

Mr.
Krenik deposited the checks in the accounts he controlled at the Maryland
banks. His fraud was unsuccessful because bank employees became suspicious when
he tried to withdraw large sums from the accounts.

Required:

Describe
internal controls that could be in place at the Air Force to help prevent such
fraud.

You are expected to
read the relevant case/problem and answer the questions posed by the author. In
answering the questions assigned for the specific case, be sure that you
provide a sufficient response to each of the case’s questions. Your response
must be at least three complete pages long (excluding cover page), using the
APA writing style. You also must include at least one external reference and
citation for each case problem. The reference and citation must be related to
the material being presented, and cannot be the textbook or the case itself.