Examining the Determinants of Employee Fraud and the Effectiveness in Managing Employee Fraud in the Banking

Abstract

The general objective of this research was to examine the determinants of employee fraud in the banking sector of Ghana, using some selected universal banks as the case study. These objectives included ascertaining factors that drive employee fraud among universal banks in Ghana, examining the effectiveness of managing employee fraud among the universal banks in Ghana and identifying the challenges confronting the universal banks in the management of employee fraud in Ghana. The study was limited to selected local and foreign banks in Ghana. They included the GCB Bank, the Consolidated Bank Ghana, Ecobank Ghana Limited, and Access Bank Ghana Limited. The study targeted bank staff within the Greater Accra region of Ghana, comprising of both management and non-management staff. The research analysed the previous related studies by focusing on the theoretical reflections of the problem under investigation, examining the conceptual framework, and reviewing the extant empirical literatures with regards to the determinants of employee fraud in the banking sector of Ghana. The literature review revealed four factors that drive employee fraud in the banking sector, the four factors include opportunity, rationalization, pressure and capitalization. The respondents indicated that, all the four factors were key determinants of employee fraud in the banking sector of Ghana (M=3.58, SD=0.79). They all agreed that opportunity, rationalization, pressure, and capability were the key factors driving employee fraud in the banking sector of Ghana. The overall significance level of 0.3% further indicated that majority of the respondents agreed to all the issues raised with regards to the factors that were likely to drive employee fraud within the banking sector of Ghana. The research recommends that, structures must be put in place in order to reduce staff involvement in the fraud practices in the banking sector of Ghana and these structures include