In delivering services to our clients we adhere to the highest standards of independence, professional objectivity and technical excellence.
Our team of professional forensic investigators has extensive experience in respect of criminal investigations, forensic auditing and accounting, regulatory compliance, evidence management, labour relations, and fraud, corruption risk management, and general business management.
We assist our clients with the investigation of allegations of financial misconduct and related irregularities, including fraud, corruption, theft, maladministration etc. Our experience in respect of the criminal justice system, civil litigation, and disciplinary matters enable our clients to effectively and efficiently resolve incidents of actual and potential financial misconduct and related irregularities.
Through our proven methodologies and investigative techniques we ensure that cases are investigated and evidence collated within the legislative and regulatory frameworks ensuring the achievement of desired results, be it criminal prosecution, civil recovery, and/or disciplinary dispute resolution.
Our qualified professionals have wide-ranging experience in providing assistance to our client family to manage and resolve complex financial and labour disputes. We provide assistance with the resolution and mitigation of risks associated with business and people conflict in various forms, whether facing disputes resulting from breach of contract, misconduct, criminal acts, abuse of power, conflict of interest, etc.
Our team has been involved in a number of dispute resolution matters, and all aspects of such matters, including case preparation, case assessment, initiation, chairing, and general advisory services.
Organisations are now, more than ever, exposed to the risk of becoming a victim of fraud, corruption or other associated acts. Therefore, although Guardian Forensic Services provide clients with fraud investigation and audit related services, they also provide a wide range of proactive services including the development of fraud prevention and anti-corruption strategies.
Proactive services that any organisation should consider in order to minimize their risk to fraud, corruption and other misconduct are:
Organisations need to understand that their employees specifically those in key function areas such as directors, supply chain management, financial management, and sales are continually exposed to adverse matters which could include receiving of bribes, conflict of interest, and other associated misconduct.
Therefore it is recommended that lifestyle audits are performed on employees more specifically those working in the said high-risk areas to ascertain whether such employees live within their means and do not have other illicit sources of income relevant to their employment responsibilities.
Lifestyle Audits include the identification of shareholding and directorships held by employees in conflict with their employment responsibilities, owning moveable and immovable assets such as property and vehicles which they could not afford based on their salary income and other related aspects.
It is highly recommended (actually imperative) for organisations when implementing tender processes to engage the services of Guardian Forensic Services to verify the accuracy of information provided by tendering parties once shortlisted by your organisation.
The tender information that Guardian Forensic Services would verify includes the following:
1) Any conflicts of interest;
2) Identifying parties including (shareholders, and associated companies);
3) Including verification of certain financial aspects including the financial status of a tendered (to protect the client from issues such as service disruption), tax compliance status, any adverse financial matters relating to directors, shareholders, and the company itself;
4) Verification of the tenderer providing the required services by doing a physical inspection of the offices of the tendering party to ascertain whether such party has the required infrastructure and resources to provide the required services, as well as verifying service delivery references provided by the tendering party to verify the level of service provided to other clients of the tendering party.
5) Identifying any adverse incidences associated with the tendering party and parties associated with it, including, criminal records, open source information implicating such parties in fraud, corruption, and other financial misconduct.
Similar to tender verification processes it is highly recommended that organisations form a proper vetting of potential vendors prior to engaging the services of such vendors in order to protect the organisation against risks associated with poor services delivery; service disruptions; and reputational risks associated with fraud, corruption, and other associated misconduct by potential vendors.
Guardian Forensic Services provides vendor vetting services which include the following:
1) The design of a vendor onboarding policy and procedure that enables the client to perform proper vendor vetting prior to the onboarding of new vendors;
2) Including verification of certain financial aspects including the financial status of a tendered (to protect the client from issues such as service disruption), tax compliance status, any adverse financial matters relating to directors, shareholders, and the company itself;
3) Verification of the tenderer providing the required services by doing a physical inspection of the offices of the tendering party to ascertain whether such party has the required infrastructure and resources to provide the required services, as well as verifying service delivery references provided by the tendering party to verify the level of service provided to other clients of the tendering party.
4) Identifying any adverse incidences associated with the tendering party and parties associated with it, including, criminal records, open source information implicating such parties in fraud, corruption, and other financial misconduct.
It is imperative for an organisation to know who it employs within the organisation because it is easier to prevent the employment of an unsuitable employee as opposed to terminating the employment of such an employee.
Guardian Forensic Services provides pre-employment screening services, which include:
1) Identifying adverse matters associated with potential employees such as (criminal records, conflict of interest, and nepotism); and
2) Including verification of certain qualifications presented by a potential employee to verify the legitimacy thereof.
We develop and utilise specialised application software to conduct data mining and data analysis for the purpose of detecting and preventing fraud, corruption and related irregularities.
Traditionally organisations possess large volumes of presumably unrelated data sets, which most often exist as a substantially untapped source of evidence and indicators of actual and/or possible irregularities. By data-mining these sets of data separately and in conjunction with publicly available sources of information we are able to identify trends, exceptions, and anomalies through relationships that exist within data sets.
Consistently applied as part of ensuring adequate control environments, and prevention strategy this is an important proactive technique with several quick wins for reducing or limiting the impact of fraud, corruption and related irregularities within an organisation.
Business processes invariably involve activities related to people, policies and processes. The most prevalent route cause for risk associated to business processes is the inability to align the key components of business processes being people, policies and processes.
Guardian Forensic Services strongly believes that our suite of services should cater for the key aspects of conducting business, being the development and implementation of business processes that is appropriately supported by trained and proficient staff and robust, user-friendly information technology systems.
We have developed proven methodologies for the design, implementation, and management of key business processes that would optimise the functionality of business processes that create value for our clients.
Guardian Forensic Services provides a wide range of forensic related services, including: