A front-line perspective on European anti-fraud training at the IACA

During the 13th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in 2015, heads of states and governments, ministers and representatives of U.N. member states once again acknowledged education as the essential component in preventing and countering crime in all its forms and manifestations.

In my November/December 2017 column I wrote that I’d like to share ideas on anti-fraud trainings and related issues to bring together practitioners, academics and students from around the world. Here I’ll focus on anti-fraud training needs in Europe. The International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA) in Laxenburg, Austria, was formed to overcome shortcomings in anti-fraud knowledge and practice.

Practicing professionals needs of anti-fraud training

To ensure that what’s taught in higher education matches the needs and experiences of fraud examiners on the front lines, we in the anti-fraud education community need to hear from practicing professionals. Martin Kreutner, dean and executive secretary of IACA (see photo below), was kind enough to recently give me some insights on training for combating fraud. (Ethisphere Institute, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based organization that measures corporate ethics standards, named Kreutner in 2017 as one of the “100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics” for his efforts in combating corruption.)

According to Kreutner, many recognize an approach of addressing fraud that rests on four pillars. Twenty years ago, the topic of fraud was more or less “de-tabooed” and “internationalized” at roughly the same time, he says. Similarly, it’s now commonly understood these days that criminalization and law enforcement constitute only one pillar in fighting fraud and corruption. He says the other pillars are prevention, education and awareness-raising, and — last but by no means least — international cooperation.

However, education takes on a special significance, he says. Thus, IACA’s purpose as an educational institution is to empower anti-fraud and anti-corruption professionals with much-needed specializations and a comprehensive framework to ensure that organizations consider every thematic aspect of fraud — academic and practical.

As Kreutner says, to be effective in our fight against fraud and corruption, practitioners need to step out of their comfort zones and draw on the knowledge of other fields to truly understand the intertwined manner in which fraud manifests itself.

IACA origins

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, INTERPOL, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and the Republic of Austria instituted the IACA on March 8, 2011. The IACA has a constituency of 72 member states, including three international organizations. But IACA is also a university, fully recognized under the EU’s Bologna Process, which is “a collective effort of public authorities, universities, teachers, and students, together with stakeholder associations, employers, quality assurance agencies, international organisations, institutions, including the European Commission,” according to the EC.

In this educational context, the IACA developed and implemented the world’s first Master Programme in Anti-Corruption Studies (MACS), to be accompanied this year by an International Master in Anti-Corruption Compliance and Collective Action (IMACC) study course, and a Ph.D. in Anti-Corruption Studies.

The IACA has more than 800 alumni in 153 countries. The academic programs, as well as their educational trainings, aim to bring together professionals with work experience from around the world, Kreutner says.

The IACA’s target groups aren’t necessarily the classic students, age 18 to 25, but anti-corruption, anti-fraud and compliance professionals from around the world. With a mix of classroom and distance learning, academic programs look at fraud and corruption from just about every possible angle. Most of the students are mid-career professionals from all spheres: government, law enforcement, business, international organizations, NGOs, journalism and the media, academia and more. This diversity creates great exchanges in and outside the classroom, according to Kreutner.

Why does the anti-fraud profession need the IACA?

Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful instrument to change the world.” Despite the immense impact fraud and corruption have on global economies, countries still lack educational programs that help us develop a full understanding of the causes of fraud and efficient mechanisms for fighting against it.

“Anti-fraud education offered in recent decades has been ad-hoc at best, often lacking specialization and a comprehensive framework,” Kreutner says. “It has suffered from educational particularism, and in some instances even separatism, thus providing limited results in the long run. In response to these shortcomings, IACA’s holistic approach was designed,” added Kreutner.

“We strive to empower our students for their daily challenges. We have lots to learn from each other — sometimes success stories but sometimes also failures,” Kreutner says.

For too long we’ve addressed the scourge of corruption and fraud exclusively from a law enforcement and criminal law perspective. However, it’s obvious that we need to try to understand the phenomenon via other disciplines such as political science, sociology, economics, law, business, sociology, anthropology and psychology.

“Even if you leave the academic and fundamental research viewpoint aside, national pieces of legislation — such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the U.K. Bribery Act, among others — and rules and standards — such as ISO 19600 and 37001 — plus ever-changing international conventions from the OECD and the U.N. require professional corruption and fraud busters to constantly acquire indispensable anti-fraud education and training,” he says.

(Kreutner said just some of the international conventions fraud examiners have to keep up with include the U.N. Convention against Corruption, the OECD Convention against Bribery in Transnational Business Transactions and the Council of Europe Conventions.)

Indeed, practitioners are constantly under pressure to solve contemporary frauds but don’t necessarily have the capacity to do so. Fraudsters’ methods and tools evolve daily, and it’s almost impossible to keep up without outside help. “We hope to bridge this gap by using what might be described as more applied focus in training and by encouraging collaboration between academics and practitioners,” Kreutner says.

“My hope is that in the future when a new fraud or corruption scheme is uncovered or becomes known, the IACA can serve as a resource to promote best practices,” he says.

Only by fostering what we call “collective action,” will we have greater and lasting impact, Kreutner says. And why should individual countries, regions, corporations or organizations all start from scratch? “Let us draw and learn from each other from what has worked and, similarly, from what has not,” Kreutner says. “The IACA is happy to serve as a partner and service provider in anti-fraud and anti-corruption technical assistance and capacity-building.”

IACA’s importance to fraud examiners who work in the trenches

“I like your notion of working in the anti-fraud and anti-corruption trenches,” Kreutner says. Regrettably, too often anti-corruption professionals are indeed exposed to all kinds of hurdles and threats, he says, and sometimes even give their lives as did Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. (See Malta car bomb kills Panama Papers journalist, by Juliette Garside, The Guardian, Oct. 16, 2017.)

“Taking this trenches analogy further, vigorous and constant training is essential not only for soldiers but also anti-fraud experts,” he says. “The Master program at IACA has been an absolute game-changer for me,” says an IACA graduate who works for the Sierra Leone Anti-Corruption Commission. “The content is rich and the in-class analysis is in-depth and apt for anti-corruption crusaders everywhere. … It takes the enquiry into corruption to a different level. This knowledge is invaluable for the work I do.”

I believe the administrators and faculty at the IACA have been absolute game changers for many practicing professionals. But, they still have a lot to do. Institutionally, they aim to attract additional member states to further enlarge their constituency and international outreach. They also wish to broaden and extend their links of cooperation with other universities and institutions.

They intend to develop and offer additional activities targeting the private-sector compliance and auditing spheres, says Kreutner. They wish to also cover anti-fraud and technology, big data analytics, plus specific areas of corruption in national and international security, development and human rights. “A challenging agenda is ahead of us all,” says Kreutner.

What are the future challenges?

As anti-fraud practitioners and academics, we need to diligently research, analyze, understand and draw conclusions about the root causes, contributing factors and parameters, and consequences of fraud and corruption for ours and future societies. The IACA teaches us how to do these things.

Ultimately, Kreutner argues, one can even teach about changing behavioral patterns and deviant human interactions (and that’s what fraud and corruption are all about from a sociological perspective).

“If we succeed in calling upon and successfully stimulating the intrinsic motivation and driving forces in ourselves to ‘say no’ to corruption — and subsequently also ‘walk the talk’ — then we have achieved the most,” he says. His down-to-earth and realistic perspective shows that the best way forward is a combination of transferring and sharing factual knowledge, extrinsic stimuli and, ideally, intrinsic incentives and beliefs.

However, knowledge and practical experience aren’t ends in themselves. Our common goal should be to create a community of close-knit anti-fraud practitioners and academics that support an environment in which we can pick up the phone, call a classmate or a lecturer on the other side of the world and get help. “The greatest challenge for our students and graduates lies in implementing what they learn during the program in their own environments,” the dean of the IACA concluded.

For more information see www.iaca.int plus the IACA’s social media channels.

Sandra Damijan, Ph.D., CFE, is lecturer and program coordinator of the Corporate Integrity Academy at the Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana. She’s the co-chair of the ACFE Higher Education Advisory Committee. She’s the former forensic leader at PwC Slovenia and investigator at Slovenian Anti-Corruption Commission. Her email address is: sandra.damijan@ef.uni-lj.si.