A Secret Accounts Payable System

A Secret Accounts Payable System
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A Secret Accounts Payable System
Using a “secret” accounts payable system to cross-check vendors against an approved vendor list is ethical. It helps evaluate the integrity of the non-secret primary system. In that way, the top management, board of directors, and the internal audit team ensure that the firm pays only accurate and legitimate invoices. A secret accounts payable system is ethical for a particular rationale. It detects and prevents vendor fraud by ensuring that the invoices reflect what the firm ordered, the firm received the services or goods billed, and the calculations and unit costs are correct, including tax obligations (Baragwanath, 2020). According to consequentialism ethics, the secret system is good since it is beneficial to the firm’s operations – the end justifies the means (Gustafson, 2018). However, maintaining the secret accounts payable system can be unethical, mainly when the top management, internal auditors, or board of directors use it to access unauthorized information.
It is a good business practice since it constitutes an effective strategy to prevent vendor fraud. Emp...