Dear mouse,
This is the tenth in the series of the Family Tree Project that I launched to leave something for my grandchildren who would never know how their grandmother, biological or adoptive lived before their birth or age of reason.
NOW:
I felt a little better in the morning and afternoon. May be because, I saw the new laptop that my brother bought. When I was stronger, I can bring my laptop in the living room to multi-task, that is watch the TV or DVD and surf in the internet.
Now, I can no longer do that. So he bought me another laptop. A slim black Toshiba. One that he installed near the TV. All I missed was a mouse. Don’t know how to use the touchpad mouse. Remember I am a mouse person.
I waited for a call from a friend who promised me that we’ll have teleconferencing the moment he gets hold of the phone number of our former boss in the Philippines. He didn’t call. May be he heeded my advice to go to the doctor. For a year now, he’s been postponing to go the doctor for a check-up. He noticed blood in his stool.
In the evening I retired to bed without dinner, I just would like to lie down. My brother gave me the new wireless mouse. It seems I am disoriented what day it is. And I dreamed.
PAST: I was trained to be an auditor in the accounting firm where I worked as a trainee and then as a regular employee upon my college graduation.
So when the VP/Dean referred me a to a client for audit, I did not hesitate to accept.
But let me tell you how I started as an audit trainee. Normally, the trainees were only assigned in the office and the real CPAs were sent to the clients.
One of the auditors got sick for a week. So when my boss asked me if I can do it, I said yes.
It was only when I arrived home when I regretted why I agreed to do the audit.
The next morning, a senior auditor brought and introduced me to the client and the accounting staff. I was instructed to start with the receivables. Many customers were complaining that they were being billed for accounts that they had already paid. The accounts receivable bookkeeper was unfriendly. I had to make several requests so he would give me the subsidiary ledgers and the index cards for each customer. It was on those cards where purchases and payments were recorded for individual customers. The customers were mostly lawyers and law firms.
Aha… after a few days of sampling the thousands of index cards, I was seeing a pattern. There was lapping. Lapping is a kind of fraud that may be committed by an employee to conceal a misappropriation of funds, usually funds paid by a customer of the employer. The employee conceals the misappropriation by applying funds subsequently paid by a second customer to conceal the deficiency in the first customer’s account.
The audit, finished, I have to type the report and submit it to the Big Boss. The big Boss conferred with the client. The fraud can not be committed by the bookkeeper alone.
There must be a collusion with the cashier.
The Big Boss asked me if I was willing to stand as a witness in the trial. Ngeeee. I thought of the witnesses being stalked and silenced in the detective/suspense thrillers that I was reading during coffee and lunch breaks.
I still had to go to the client to get some more documents to copy. Going down the building, I run towards the elevator before the door closed.
Inside was the accused bookkeeper. We were only two in that poorly lit elevator. When he swung his hand towards me, I ducked. Yon pala, ipipress lang niya yong number where he’s going to get off.
The case was settled out of court. The bookkeeper and the cashier voluntarily resigned and signed a promissory note to pay the amount that was found to have been embezzled.
The cashier was a relative of one of the directors of the corporation.
My Big Boss was happy. I hardly spent a week in the Main Office when she instructed my supervisor to send me to a start-up garments corporation.
It seems one of the directors would like to find out where did the cash investments go before he
pours in another hundred of thousands. This time, no one was going to escort me. All I have to do was dress well, go to the address and look for the President.
That’s what I did. The receptionist pointed me to a room where I saw a teen-age looking guy reading newspaper with his two feet atop his desk. I said good morning and I asked him where can I see the President. He asked why. I told him that I need a desk and the books of the corporation, the receipts and etc.
One guy came in and I introduced myself. He was the Treasurer. He pointed to me the President, the youthful/brat/without the expensive/shirt/he was wearing/would look/like/a high/school/sophomore for me. Tumayo pa. I could have asked him, how’s the weather down Under. I was wearing my first stilleto shoes. Paimpress.
So, the client was the rich father who was approached again by the son for more infusion of capital.
Weeks passed. I enjoyed the new job. The office was in the same building where the father’s publishing house was also located. So during breaks, I went to the other office, borrowed some books from the library, watched how the staff edit the books and or mainly chat with the friendly receptionist.
But as I continued my audit, I could see where the money was spent. Sports car for a corporate vehicle? Lots of entertainment accounts?
One day, I was late reporting for work. No problem, auditors have the privilege to come late and stay late.
The receptionist told me the sad news. The Treasurer committed suicide.
I was recalled in the Main Office. There’s no use to continue the audit. I had just submitted the latest weekly report.
I pondered whether I am going to continue being an auditor.
The Ca t
