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Theft by Design

Wmt_logoHere is an example of cost cutting unintended consequences. .   Yep, it’s our old friends at WMT back in the news again.  WMT publicly announced that it would throttle back on ‘minor’ shop lifting  to focus on major shop lifting rings.  KA JING!  And so ‘minor’ shop lifting has been  lifted, so to speak, the WMT ‘shrinkage’ rate the the industry average.  Seems folks are simply carting goods right out the front door.  And 47% of this is by employees!

It has been said that locks on doors are there to keep honest people honest. One needs only look at this kind of statistics or a newsreel from post Katrina or LA in 1969 to see what happens when we signal the all clear to theives. Which reminds me, the DISD has decided it is just too difficult to prosecute the 600+ credit card ‘theives’ in its system. What message does this send to all their employees? 

We wil  continue to discuss ethics in class and what happens when good folks are allowed to go bad….

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2 responses to “Theft by Design”

  1. April Y Avatar
    April Y

    Obviously, stealing of any kind and amount is wrong. Unfortunately, some people feel they are justified in doing it due to circumstances, such as management not caring for their workers.(I will not begin the debate about, say someone steals food to feed themselves or others to keep from starving. In the article they mention the stealing of flat-screen TVs and cash, which are not necessities.) The fact that they feel they will not be punished for this wrongdoing is, of course, yet another incentive for someone to steal. Attitude of management, oppurtunity, and incentive, the three parts of the auditor’s fraud triangle, are all apparent in the WalMart situation as large reasons as to why this fraud may be occuring.

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  2. Dennis Elam Avatar
    Dennis Elam

    Thanks for including the three parts of the audit triangle, clearly you are getting the flavor of Harvey Zimmerman’s audit course!

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