Effectiveness of fraud investigator's

Many institutions are faced with fraud challenges. The impact of fraud has led to downfall of several organizations, legal tussles and loss of confidence in organizations. The executive involvements in fraudulent activities has greatly impacted on the reputation of many organizations globally. The study findings may in a small way act as a whistle-blower to the increasing cases of banking frauds in financial institutions like banking sector and other government departments. The study may also generate policy input for Central Bank of Kenya, other associated financial institutions like banking sector, Kenya Bankers Association and micro finance institutions as well as country's economy at large. The purpose of this research was to explore effectiveness of fraud investigators at the investigation unit of banking fraud at the Central Bank of Kenya. The objectives of the study were: To establish legal constraints that inhibit fraud investigations in the banking sector, to assess how customer confidentiality hinders successful fraud investigations in the banking sector, to identify the technological limitations that hinders successful fraud investigations in the banking sector and to identify mitigation strategies and actions that may be applied by investigators to deter banking fraud. The study used descriptive research design and the data collection instrument was mainly from primary sources through interviews and questionnaire which was administered by the researcher. The questionnaire used open-ended and close ended questions. The study used a stratified random sampling technique. A sample size of 30 investigators was used to inform the study. The data processing and analysis applied both qualitative and quantitative techniques which involved descriptive statistical method. The population of the study was the banking fraud investigators who work in banking fraud unit dealing with fraudulent activities in the banking industry in the country. The key findings of the study include:-legal constraints and the sentences being awarded by courts to fraud convicts are insufficient, the study establishes that there is law present in Kenyan constitution to protect witnesses in fraud cases, lack of IT experts, delay in getting expert reports in the banks and time constraints in conducting forensic investigations and also customer confidentiality hinders successful investigations of banking frauds. The study recommends training of bank employees, customer awareness campaigns, creation of a centralized fraud database and improvements in the judicial and legal handling of bank frauds. Areas for additional research is on awareness of customers on banking fraud and different internal controls put in place by banking sector for purpose of deterring fraudulent activities.

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