discussion

         As the business grows so does the increase in levels of hierarchy of the company .This shows that any task cannot be done by a single individual , if done so that consumes most of the time to complete an operation . So segregation of duties creates an ease in business processes to get the tasks done efficiently and effectively and expose the risks involved in any particular task that are being carried out in any organization by a single employee i.e., for example, if transaction , billing and closing for a particular task are done by single individual , there is a risk factor involved of that individual exploiting the system  and can become unnoticed by any other employee or employer of the company. So any duty should be done by at least more than a single individual so that , the errors can be caught and prevent internal fraud in the business. Duties can also be segregated to assure that the transactions are correct , reported with accuracy and are adhering to rules and regulations of the company.

 Management and its review to determine proper segregation of duties 

         Management can record the end results of both prior to separation of duties and post separation of duties  and perform a final assessment to determine if duties are properly segregated or not.

Challenges of management having inadequate staff 

         Not all processes require highly qualified personnel . So, few duties may just be  mitigated by imbibing mitigation controls in the system.Duties which can give us a least risk can be reduced by introducing mitigation controls into the system.

Real time scenario and views on it

                On May 2013 , Edward Snowden's whistle blowing regarding NSA ( National Security Agency ) documents can be taken as an example that might have mitigated threat to NSA , if proper prior strategies like segregation of duties are put into its system . According to ABC news , "Snowden was earlier appointed as a contractor with NSA who managed to download and steal an estimated 1.7 million confidential files". According to Reuters , International News Agency’s article,Russian President said that “Snowden leaking the secrets is wrong but he is not a traitor “.

The leak created direct or indirect knowledge gain among the public regarding the NSA surveillance operations.

President Obama then urged to segregate a panel consisting of 5 experts to deal with the issue.The panel prepared 300 page report for the President with 46 recommendations which were far reaching .  

To conclude , I would recommend being proactive instead of being reactive to the issue by practising strong internal controls, applying transparency in organizational processes,segregation of duties for all the tasks that are being performed in its operations and implementing employee evaluation practice under scrutiny to avoid internal threats in the organization.

Thank You