While briefing a new recruit, an internal auditor explains the three elements of the fraud triangle. The auditor points to weak segregation of duties and unmonitored system access as the factor that makes fraud both possible to commit and easy to conceal. Which element of the fraud triangle is the auditor describing?
- APressure, or motivation, the financial or emotional force that drives a person towards committing fraud.
- BRationalisation, the way an individual justifies dishonest conduct to themselves before or after acting.
- CCapability, the personal traits and authority that let a specific individual carry out a scheme successfully.
- DOpportunity, the conditions, such as weak controls and excessive access, that allow fraud to be committed and hidden. Correct
Why A is wrong: Pressure is a genuine element of the triangle, but it describes the internal force pushing a person to act, not the control weakness that lets the act happen.
Why B is wrong: Rationalisation is a real element, yet it concerns the offender's mindset and self-justification, not the environmental gap that permits the fraud.
Why C is wrong: Capability extends the triangle into the wider fraud diamond and concerns an individual's skills and position, not the control conditions described here.
Why D is correct: Opportunity is the element created by control weaknesses and poor oversight, which is exactly what unmonitored access and weak segregation of duties represent.