February 09, 2007

Ethical or not?

Internship Church is a small church. There are four church members, including the church treasurer, who can sign checks. Each check, regardless of amount, must have two signatures.

The other day one of the signers came in to sign some checks. She signed a number of reimbursement checks, including one for herself. I had an issue with this. With four possible signers and two signatures needed, I didn't think anyone should sign checks for herself (all the signers happen to be female). However, the signer and the church administrative assistant didn't seem to see a problem with the signer signing her own check.

What do you think? Ethical or not?
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Emily - you might check what the church financial procedures say, and if the reimbursement was for a line item that the signer legitimately might spend toward (committee, etc). The fact that their are two signers are, I think, about limiting fraud/embezzlement. You might ask about standard accounting procedures, and what the church accountants/financial secretary/auditor say....

2/09/2007 2:14 PM
Anonymous said...

not a good habit

2/09/2007 6:34 PM
Sue Densmore said...

Not automatically unethical, but when the auditors come it wouldn't be their favorite thing to see and they would likely advise against it.

2/17/2007 9:33 AM
Teri said...

it's almost as sketchy as the fact that I sign my own reimbursement authorizations....and no one seems to see an issue with that...

2/17/2007 9:46 PM

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