Final answer:
To prevent fraudulent activities, an organization should thoroughly check the prior employment background of all new employees, investigate any close relatives working for vendors, and seek reliable references to gain insight into the candidates' professional behavior and work ethic.
Step-by-step explanation:
The control that might have prevented the diversion of funds by an accounts payable manager involves adequately checking prior employment backgrounds for all new employees. This due diligence process could uncover a history of wrongdoing or fraudulent behavior, which would be a strong indicator of future risks. Checking the past employment history would include verifying any instances of termination and the reasons behind such actions. Moreover, it would be wise for an organization to check if potential employees have close relatives working for vendors, which could reveal conflicts of interest that might later manifest in fraudulent activities like funneling money through duplicate payments.
Employers can learn from the case of Greta and the concern of hiring a 'lemon' by ensuring they collect detailed information about a candidate's work and academic history and look for reliable references that provide insights into the candidate's work ethic and professional behavior.A control that might have prevented this situation is to check to see whether close relatives work for vendors. By implementing this control, the organization would have noticed that the accounts payable manager had a close relative who was also a vendor. This would have raised a red flag and allowed the organization to investigate further and potentially prevent the manager from diverting the funds.