Fraud likelihood determinants in the road toll collection system in Cameroon

Abstract

The study set out to investigate fraud likelihood determinants in the road toll collection system in Cameroon. The specific objectives were to examine fraud likelihood determinants in the management of road toll ticket production, inventory of vehicles accessing tollgates, sale of road toll tickets, physical security of money collected at the tollgate, and physical security of money conveyed to the public treasury. The poor physical state of toll roads in Cameroon points to the degree to which toll collections are used in road maintenance. The roads are usually plagued with potholes and poor or no road signs leading to deadly road accidents. The researcher collected data through a questionnaire, and regressed using a summation model. The findings revealed that toll ticket production, ticket sales, and physical security of money at tollgates have crucial internal control weaknesses that create fraud opportunities. It was therefore recommended that manual tollgate systems be converted to electronic systems so as to cut down on tollgate traffic congestions and secure more road toll cash inflow for road maintenance. The second recommendation was that toll fee collections be visibly seen by tollgate actors to be used for road maintenance when they use good roads. In this way, their road ethics increases while road toll evasion reduces. The third recommendation was that government fight against corruption and fraud should moves from rhetoric to action. Lastly, monitoring and impromptu audits at tollgates be instituted and activated.

Keywords:

Road toll collection, occupational fraud, tax evasion, tax ethics, tollgate fraud, automated toll system