Workplace fraud is costing Canada’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) at least $3.2 billion a year and the problem appears to be growing. Roughly 290,000 SMEs were victims of one or more instances of work-place fraud in the past year, says a Certified General Accountants Association of Canada (CGA-Canada) study. In addition to financial loss, workplace fraud also damages staff morale and management confidence. “It can be like an atomic bomb going off inside of a business,” Greg Draper, national leader of investigative forensic ser-vices with MNP LLP says. “There’s shock, frenzy and you don’t want to believe it happened.” Companies should invest in pre-employment background checks, monitor internal controls and systems, enforce a zero-tolerance policy, and tailor prevention and detection measures to the needs of the organization.