Chapter 14 - Petty Cash funds

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Dallas police employee indicted in petty cash theft

Summary

The Dallas police department has just been informed that someone in their own department has been accused of breaking the law-stealing from the petty cash fund. Ruby Rodriguez 32, faces the charge of petty cash theft. In the states this person that breaks this law can be punished of 10 years of prison and $10 000 fine. In the beginning of the year 2009 the police had began to investigate in the loss of the petty cash fund in the financial and contract management division. The money missing from the petty cash fund was found after Rodriguez told one of her employee that she has been cashing checks and keeping the money. Rodriguez cooperated with the investigators and told them the theft happened from May 2008 to December 2008 and totaled $17 506. She was suppose to cash these checks and her job was to place the money in the petty cash fund, and she did not do this. The problems were that regular audits were not being done, those who were in charge of funds didn't have enough training in the petty cash procedures. There were only a few emergency occasions; the PC custodian has been requested to utilize her personal account, due to the unavailability of sworn staff to escort her to the primary bank. Rodriguez is on leave right now and she is likely to be fired soon.


Connection

This article connects with chapter 14.5 petty cash fund. The first procedure of the petty cash fund is to get a trusted person to cash the check and that money is placed in the petty cash fund box. Unfortunately, in this article the theft had occurred with an employee stealing from the company. Rodriguez was the one responsible for putting the cashed funds in the petty cash fund, instead of following the procedure she took it for herself. This article states that the petty cash funds should be audit regularly to avoid theft and personnel who are involved in the process of the petty cash fund should have some training. This problem can be avoided if they have followed the process stated above doing this prevents any illegal things from occurring. The most important thing is to be organized and keep track of the funds at all time.

Reflection

In my opinion the petty cash fund is critical part of a business. However, if it is not monitored properly then it can cause major problems or even theft. If one person is not trusted to cash the check, I think that a business can have two people to cash the check instead. If there are two people cashing the check then theft can be avoid. Doing this just ensures the safety of the petty cash fund. I also agree with the article that employees or personnel dealing with this fund should have good knowledge and regular auditing is a must! Company owners might not want everything to be audited regular because it can become quite costly. But if the petty cash fund is not monitored properly it will just cause chaos - not only will it cost more money to fix the problem and it would just be a waste of time.