Describe the three organization objective categories in

the internal control framework. How are they related

to the COSO $2013$ components of internal control?

Below are some situations that occurred in various

organizations.

a$.$ The company president was implicated in a case

of high$-$level fraud, but the matter was hushed up

successfully.

b$.$ An employee expected he would be fired because

of a conduct violation, but six months later he

was still on the job. Management currently was

distracted by the possibility of a hostile takeover.

c$.$ After a new trikrical assistant had been on the job

for three weeks, it was discovered that she had no

relevant qualifications or work experience.

d$.$ When the internal auditors conducted an inquiry

into the high incidence of errors in the accounting

department, it emerged that three clerks recently

had been transferred there from other depart$-$

ments. Although the clerks had some accounting

experience, none was familiar with the company's

accounting system.

e$.$ A customer complained about being overcharged

on an invoice, and it turned out the error was de$-$

liberate. The billing clerk, who had not benefitted

personally in any way, defended himself by say$-$

ing, "I thought you would appreciate my trying to

bring more money into the company."

f$.$ A colleague explained to a new employee, $"$It doesn't

matter what you do here; just don't get caught."

Required:

Discuss the deficiencies that must have existed in the

control environment for these situations to have occurred.

It is often said that control is achieved through people,

and human resource policies and practices certainly

make an important contribution to an organization's

control environment.