Pub. 9 2014-2015 Issue 1

May | June 2014 17 Extraordinary Service for Extraordinary Members. For more information, call Kansas Bankers Surety at (785) 228-0000. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska is an Independent Licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. nebraskablue.com for the road ahead. Count on us opened. All cash would be counted and logged into the log book for each item recorded. The amount also was compared to the deposit slip, and any discrepancy was noted in the log. Only after all cash was counted and verified would the deposits be distributed among the employees to verify and process the checks contained in the deposits. After reviewing all of its procedures, the bank asked local law enforcement to investigate the matter. Law en- forcement also interviewed the bank employees and could find no reason to believe the deposit had ever reached the bank. Local law enforcement also obtained records from the casino. The customer was a regular at the casino and was careful to make sure all of his transactions were logged so he could offset his losses against winnings for tax purposes. The casino records showed he had lost $2,500 on the 15th. In this situation, the bank’s good controls protected the bank from an unfounded claim. However, faced with the same situation, many banks would have a much tougher time denying liability. The dual control procedures involving the night de- pository safe need to be designed to protect the employees and the bank from claims of missing deposits. Ask yourself these questions: 1. Is it possible for one employee to open the night depository safe prior to the official opening? 2. Is the night depository safe opened under dual control? 3. Is a count made of the total number of items? 4. Do the procedures prevent a person from taking an item out of the night depository without the item being logged? 5. Is all cash counted while still under dual control? 6. Does the log contain information about each item, including the amount of cash in each item, and con- tain a count of the number of items taken out each day? Your procedures not only need to document under dual control what was in the night depository but also document that nothing else was in the night depository. Good procedures will prevent your employees from be- ing exposed to unwarranted suspicion when a customer mistakenly claims that a deposit was made. 