The precise details need not concern us unduly in this chapter. Instead, we suggest that you concentrate on what apparently caused the errors – an incorrect classification and an overstatement of some loans and advances. The chief executive puts these mistakes down to ‘a simple human error’.
1 To what extent do you think that these mistakes were due to inherent flaws in the computerized (presumably) accounting recording system?
2 Do you think it likely that the classification error was caused by someone simply putting the wrong account number on some of the invoices?
3 Is it likely that the overstatement of lending to the construction industry was more a matter of judgement rather than carelessness in coding the invoices?
4 What does it say for the bank’s control procedures if these mistakes were due to ‘a simple human error’?