By Carrie Brown McWhorter
The Alabama Baptist
If the idea of embezzlement brings to mind images of big corporations and shady employees, then think again.
Financial theft is not just a problem in the secular business world. All too often, churches find themselves victims as well.
“Not a single Sunday passes where someone doesn’t steal from the offering plate in churches in Alabama. We hear about embezzlement in an Alabama church an average of once a month,” said Jim Swedenburg, director of the office of Cooperative Program and stewardship development for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM).
And it happens in churches where people thought it could never happen to them, said Bobby DuBois, associate executive director of the SBOM.
Unlike theft in the business world, embezzlement of church funds is seldom reported to authorities.
“Most churches choose not to prosecute. Some do not even make the theft publicized,” Swedenburg said.
More than half the time, church leaders extend forgiveness to the person who has stolen and persuade him or her to repay the church, he said. That way, the person can stay in the church and be productive, Swedenburg said.
“They just don’t need to have opportunity to be around money,” he said.
DuBois said churches largely ignore the “fraud triangle” used in the business world to identify potential areas of concern. The fraud triangle comprises pressure, rationalization and opportunity.
“Pressure comes when an employee with financial access has a family member who incurs high medical bills or high debt. It also can center on the spouse losing a job or a child entering college,” he said.
Rationalization is often expressed when a longtime employee feels overlooked, especially in terms of bonuses or salary increases.
“If [the employee] is able to rationalize in their own mind that they deserve more than what the church is doing for them, the temptation to embezzle may increase,” DuBois said.
Finally anytime someone holds a position in which money is involved, the opportunity to steal is there. This is the one aspect of the three that the church can control, DuBois said.
Regardless of a church’s size or the type of donations received each week, he recommended a few basic steps churches can take to protect both themselves and those who handle money from charges of embezzlement.
- Always have more than one person present when money (cash or checks) is being counted. Establish guidelines for handling cash receipts.
- Always have co-signers of checks, and do not allow anyone to sign a blank check.
- Have someone who does not write the checks reconcile the bank account.
- Have a finance committee made up of people who understand accounting procedures, and have the committee thoroughly check the financial reports regularly (monthly or quarterly).
- Conduct external audits as frequently as the church is able to do so. These audits should be performed by auditing professionals.
- If the church is not able to conduct an external audit annually, then annual internal audits should be done by a committee made up of church members who understand the audit process.
DuBois said many churches have one person who controls the entire process — he or she gets the money from the offering plate, opens the envelopes, counts the money, makes the deposit, writes the checks, reconciles the bank statement and generates reports for the church.
The individual may be a longtime member of the church whom other members trust without question, he said, and even church members who suspect a problem may be hesitant to voice their concerns.
“We encourage strong, solid internal controls as a means of protecting that longtime, trusted member from accusations of financial mismanagement and the church from the embarrassment of being featured on the front page of the local newspaper for the wrong reason,” DuBois said.
For more information about protecting your church from embezzlement, call DuBois or Swedenburg at 1-800-264-1225 or visit www.alsbom.org/accounting.
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