The CFE Designation of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners

With an MBA in finance from Golden Gate University in San Francisco, California, Brenda Roberts has been serving public and private organizations as an audit professional for over two decades. Brenda Roberts is a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and a member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE).

With more than 85,000 members, the ACFE was created to support the profssionals working to prevent, detect amd investigate fraud. Students, educators, and others interested in the the field of fraud deterrence and fraud examinations can join ACFE in one of its membership categories.

To become a CFE-accredited anti-fraud professional, an individual must join the ACFE as a student, associate, or educator member and pass the CFE exam. All ACFE members receive benefits, such as access to Fraud Magazine and participation in ACFE seminars and conferences. However, only CFE members have access to the professional visibility and credibility of the CFE designation, which is accepted worldwide.

According to the 2020 Compensation Guide for Anti-Fraud Professionals, CFEs also tend to earn 34 percent more than non-certified anti-fraud professionals. The designation demonstrates a high level of industry knowledge, skill, and professionalism; as a result, CFEs are in high demand.

 

Published: The International Conference for the Institute of Internal Auditors

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Published: Internal Auditing and Teaching at Local Universities

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Published: Prior to joining RGP as a Project Manager — Compliance, award-winning auditor Brenda Roberts has…

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Published: Internal Auditing and Teaching at Local Universities

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2017 Report Finds Room for Improvement with Oakland's 911 System

A project manager for RGP in Walnut Creek, California, Brenda Roberts previously served as the City Auditor for the City of Oakland. During her tenure, Brenda Roberts authored a November 2017 report showing the City's police and fire department often did not respond to emergency calls within time limits established by regional and national guidelines.

In part, these delayed response times were because the City of Oakland had not fully converted to cell phone or wireless 911 calls. That is, if a caller within the city limits of Oakland used his/her cell phone and dialed 911 to report an emergency, the call would be routed to the California Highway Patrol’s offices in Vallejo, nearly 30 miles away. The time elapsed to identify the emergency need from the Highway Patrol dispatchers and then route the call back to the first responders in Oakland resulted long delays in response times.

The national standard for call answering times is set by the National Emergency Number Association (NENA). These standards require 90% of all emergency calls should be answered within 10 seconds during the peak call hour, and 95% should be answered within 20 seconds at all other times. But the average wait time for Oakland emergency dispatch was 27 seconds. Using a cell phone delayed the response times up to 3 minutes.

The report also noted persistent problems with hiring and turnover, pay gaps between uniformed and civilian personnel, and inconsistent performance evaluations. Even though extra resources were given to the City, staffing remained below optimum levels. Management also could not explain why 4 dispatch operators were on duty but unavailable for calls up to 58 percent of their assigned work time.

The audit recommended changes in hiring, retention, promotion of flex time, training, and timely employee evaluations. The City Administrator accepted the proposed remedies, noting that several of the recommendations had been acknowledged and put into effect.

ALGA - Benefits for Local Government Auditors

Brenda Roberts is an auditor with an MBA in finance and years of experience working for private and publicly held companies, and for government organizations. As a professional, she has benefitted from membership in several associations that foster the important work of auditors, including the Institute of Internal Auditors, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners and local chapters of CPA societies. In her role as government auditor, she supported the Association of Local Government Auditors (ALGA), a professional group dedicated to promoting the profession of auditors working in local and regional governments worldwide.

Formed in 1989, ALGA serves more than 2,500 individual members and 300 governmental auditing agencies. Its mission is to provide a community support for these auditors through advocacy and education, and the promotion of standards and ethics.

Audit reporting from corporate auditing organizations is generally a confidential process--reports and audit findings are reviewed by management and addressed by their Board of Directors. But audit reports issued by government auditors are public documents. This supports the cornerstone of democracy and good government--transparency. As such, government auditors have a greater responsibility – to report fully and truthfully the status of transactions, financial position and program accomplishments (or failures) to the residents, taxpayers and beneficiaries of government programs.

To maintain and support the standards government auditors must adhere to, ALGA provides a Peer Review program. A peer review is an independent and objective examination of the activities of the government audit agency, using standards and codes of ethics as guidelines for this review. At the conclusion of this review, a summary of findings is produced, stating whether the audit agency operates within these frameworks, or improvements are required. Members of ALGA must undergo a peer review every 3 years to maintain their membership in good standing.

During her tenure as Audit Manager at the City & County of San Francisco and City Auditor for the City of Oakland these audit agencies participated in peer review evaluations, in compliance with ALGA’s requirements. The conclusions for each of these reviews was ‘no negative findings’, a clear indication that under Ms. Roberts’ management, these audit departments fulfilled their obligations to the standards and ethics of the professional association of auditors.

ALGA acknowledges exceptional work by local government auditors. As a part of the Knighton Award process, audit reports are judged by peer government auditors, identifying audits representing innovative practices, best writing and most challenging audit findings. Audit shops compete against peer shops of similar size, for this award. Brenda Roberts has been vetted with the Knighton award twice—once for her work on the city’s health care system at the City & County of San Francisco. More recently as City Auditor of Oakland, her audit report on housing and the state of the city’s rental housing agency was a Knighton Award winner. The audit recommendations resulted in legislation change in the way Oakland administers its rental housing program.

For more information about ALGA, its programs, membership benefits and local associations, visit www.algaonline.org.

The IIA - Online Webinars Replace Live Conferences

Brenda Roberts is a professional auditor and holds active membership with several associations, including The Institute of Internal Auditors (The IIA). She takes advantage of the workshops, conferences and seminars that are held locally and nationwide to keep current with changes in standards, regulations and practices. Recently, many of these events have been cancelled due to the restrictions put in place related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, The IIA and its associated local chapters have adapted their trainings to online forums, giving professionals opportunities to participate in these important events, while maintaining ‘social distancing’.

These online events will be offered to The IIA members over the next several months and recordings will be available to everyone at a later date. Topics include “Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance and its Growing Importance to Corporate Boards” and “Utilizing Resources and Technology to Advance Internal Audit.”

Recent articles, published by The IIA are highly relevant, given the recent circumstances of the COVID-19 crisis, including: “Rethinking Preparedness: Pandemics and Cybersecurity” and “Lessons from Ebola.” And blog posts focusing on economic changes include: “Pandemic and Looming Recession Demand Internal Auditors Step Up”, and “Initial Pandemic Responses Didn’t Leverage Internal Audit.”

For more information about The IIA and upcoming events and publications, visit The IIA website at www.theiia.org.

The IIA and Big Data Issues

An accomplished auditing professional with more than 15 years of experience, Brenda Roberts most recently served as the City Auditor for Oakland, California. As a career auditor, Ms. Roberts is a member of several professional organizations, including the Institute of Internal Auditors (The IIA). Ms. Roberts is a Past President of a Bay Area Chapter of The IIA, and a former member of an IIA International Committee supporting internal audit curriculum in colleges and universities world-wide.

The IIA advocates for internal auditors and regularly identifies emerging trends and issues auditors and management should consider in their risk management strategies. The "Tone at the Top" is a monthly newsletter, providing senior management, boards of directors, and audit committees with concise information on governance-related topics. The February 2020 issue highlights data and data bytes. The article notes that ninety percent of the world’s data was produced in just the past 2 years. This trend shows the escalating speed of data generation. Management and oversight boards should pay attention to this staggering increase because the capacity to store and the ability to categorize and use this data will impact operations, compliance risks and likely profitability.

Privacy concerns from the public and new legislation mean management must view data and the constraints surrounding Big Data in an altogether different way. Data no longer represents information that companies can collect, use and retain without regard to consent, source or content. Compliance can be expensive and an analysis of the cost to retain and utilize it to align with privacy regulations should be compared to the benefits of the underlying information.

For more information on privacy, visit the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics at www.corporatecompliance/privacy.org.

To view The IIA’s February issue of "Tone at the Top", see www.theiia.org/AECPublic/Tone-at-the-Top-February-2020.pdf.