Wishbone Company Maintains Two Separate Accounts Payable Computer Systems

question 234

Essay

Wishbone Company maintains two separate accounts payable computer systems. One is known to all the users, and is used to process payments to vendors. Employees enter the vendor code, or the name and address of new vendors, the amount, the account, and so on. The other system is a secret one. It is used to cross-check the vendors against an approved vendor list. If a vendor is not listed as approved, the payment process is halted. Internal audit employees seek to verify the existence of a bona fide claim by the vendor. All inquiries are made at the top management level, and very discreetly. No one but top management, the internal audit staff, and the Board of Directors of the company is even aware of the second system.
Required:
Is it ethical for a company to have a secret system like the one described? Explain.

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Definitions:

Single Factor APT

Arising from the Arbitrage Pricing Theory, this is an asset pricing model based on a single factor, typically the market return, to predict security returns.

Arbitrage Opportunities

Situations where a trader can profit from discrepancies in prices across different markets or instruments without risk.

Risk-Free Rate

The interest rate at which an investor can lend money with no risk of default, often represented by the yield on government bonds.

APT

The Arbitrage Pricing Theory is a model that predicts asset returns based on the relationship between an asset's return and several macroeconomic factors.