Forensic Specialist at MultiChoice

Reports to: Manager Forensic Services

Direct Reports: None

Division: Finance

Key Customers: Multichoice Group

Purpose of the Position:

• Conduct investigations into irregularities as directed by the Manager: Forensic Services in line with best practice, internal processes and based on factual evidence
• Collate and deliver compelling and comprehensive evidence with a view to internal/external proceedings (including criminal and civil) and ultimately minimise financial losses, reputational damage and other irregular behaviour
• Support the achievement of strategic and business objectives through a focused approach to the monitoring and detection of fraudulent incidents and red flags for potential incidents that may impact the business to deliver on its strategy
• Monitor identified fraud risks, potential instances and known system weaknesses that may lead to fraud and/or other misconduct
• Generate business-friendly strategies and solutions to address current fraud trends and mitigate against, and prevent, the future occurrence of fraud and/or other misconduct in different contexts and circumstances
• Finding long term solutions/controls to support the business’ resilience to fraud
• Oversee, initiate and plan fraud awareness campaigns and training in general and in specific areas of the business
• Measure the effectiveness of training provided

Tasks

• Promptly and comprehensively log and investigate all allegations or suspicions received, pertaining to violations within the Group
• Based on investigations, identify and highlight potential system and/or process deficiencies and gaps to stakeholders to recommend preventative measures, improvements and training initiatives, and ensure relevant corrective action is taken
• Identify suspects and analyse the activities of individuals, groups and organisations through the application of analytical techniques
• Manage highly sensitive and confidential information in an approprianer
• Develop good working relationships with business and functional stakeholders and ensure senior management remains informed of investigative developments
• Collect and analyse electronic data, interpret documents and interview suspects/witnesses to substantiate findings
• Evaluate information by assessing the reliability of the source, and the validity and quality of information, to gain informed insights
• Document in a case management system and report key information and issues related to the investigation in a comprehensive, accurate and timely manner
• Institute recovery procedures together with Legal and Finance
• Ensure monitoring and detection strategies are developed, and that internal and external fraud is monitored at the point of origination to limit potential fraud losses, reputational risk and regulatory sanctions
• Investigate behavioural patterns that could assist in the identification of fraud
• Evaluate relevant system alerts for potentially fraudulent activity
• Extract, verify and analyse transactions from multiple systems as well as input from other sources to identify potential fraudulent trends and activities
• Work with law enforcement for the prosecution of investigations, complying with policies and legislation
• Respond to fraud trends and recommend action plans
• Monitor fraud risk priorities to ensure early identification and reporting of transgressions and potential adverse impacts for business
• Report on the results generated by proactive fraud detection periodically and pro-active engagement with business
• Work closely with management, to ensure that the requirements for fraud awareness training is timeously identified, developed, rolled out and managed across the business
• Ensure that learning strategies align to business needs and are effectively implemented
• Through a needs and gap analysis whilst working with training teams, identify specific learning and development needs and in turn, advise and, where required, develop/ refresh fraud awareness training courses/ materials to support closing of gaps
• Design an annual fraud awareness training plan
• Ensure the smooth running of the fraud awareness training plans and the recordkeeping relating to these plans
• Conduct tailored post-investigation communication campaigns
• Support the performance of fraud risk assessments in the business and identify potential fraud risk areas
• Interview key stakeholders and staff in the business and improve the number of direct investigations tip-offs to the department
• Review internal and external audit reports to identify gaps in processes where fraud/ other misconduct could have/could be committed
• Report on the results generated through training and awareness programmes

Continuous Improvement

• Provide input into the identification of themes, trends and lessons learned from investigations to support the continuous improvement of business and the control environment
• Provide data and insights into the current and emerging fraud threat landscape and tools
• Promote collaboration, innovation and improvement in the management of fraud
• Support the development of daily, weekly and monthly exception reporting based on identified risk areas in the business (through data mining and statistical analysis)
• Ensure that the control environment in which affected business units operate are conducive to the reduction of financial crime
• Provide input for reporting on fraud risk trends, controls and mitigating actions
• Work with technical staff to test fraud models
• Assist with developing predictive models based on individual fraudulent transactions to improveautomated detection
• Assist with developing and recommending fraud rules and strategies across technology platforms
• Analyse available internal and external data sources in order to refine fraud decision processes and rule sets
• Provide insights to local and global developments that could impact the fraud risk landscape
• Recommend appropriate fraud detection processes and controls that may reduce the fraud
• impact within the business

Qualification

• A Bachelor's degree or equivalent in Accounting and Finance, Internal Audit, Business or Law
• Professional qualification: CFE

Experience & Skills

• 5-8 years of the following forensics/fraud experience:
  • Conducting forensic investigations within corporate environments, relating to white collar crime and, amongst others, conflicts of interest
• Understanding key features of laws relevant to the forensic investigations
• Good knowledge of information sources and evidence handling, specifically with reference to electronic evidence
• Demonstrated ability to analyse, evaluate and interpret data sets with a strong understanding and application of analytical techniques
• Experience with forensic data analytics
• Use of technology e.g., data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning in developing monitoring and detection techniques
• Experience with fraud risk management
• Experience with fraud risk assessments
• Understand the line-of-sight between strategy and organisational implementation
• Performing predictive analysis, as well as effective prevention, detection and response to fraud risks and engaging stakeholders on these insights
• Remedial action development
• Experience in risk practices, laws and regulations (including relevant regulatory or legislative frameworks)
• Knowledge in the white-collar corporate environment in relation to forensic investigations and fraud awareness strategies
• Fraud awareness training/learning and development experience
• Specialist knowledge of forensics and fraud awareness strategy in a corporate environment that spans the forensics value chain (predict, prevent, detect, recover, respond & remediate)
• Proven track record in managing diverse stakeholder groups and ability to navigate across regions
• Interaction with executive management
• Ability to coordinate, work with and gain the trust of business stakeholders, technical resources, and third-party vendors
• Established reputation for integrity, good judgment, fairness and discretion when dealing with staff and external parties
• Experience in business areas such as marketing, procurement, inventory management, human resources, finance & accounting, etc.
• Ability to effectively communicate complex technical findings, recommendations and trends into clear and concise written and verbal communication
• Preparing evidence files and interviewing witnesses and suspects
• Advanced technical report writing
• Leading evidence in internal disciplinary proceedings and criminal/civil prosecutions
• SAPS experience (including knowledge of prosecution procedures)