What describes the addition of a fictitious member of staff to the salary list?

The addition of a fictitious member of staff to the salary list is termed payroll fraud, which directly involves manipulating salary records to gain unauthorized financial benefits. This type of fraud occurs when an employee or someone in a position of authority creates a false employee record and either issues paychecks to that non-existent person or diverts the funds elsewhere.

Payroll fraud can manifest in various forms, including ghost employees, where payments are made to individuals who do not actually work for the organization. This can happen through collusion among employees or inadequate controls within the payroll process, allowing fraudulent activities to go unchecked.

The other options, while they may relate to different contexts of fraud, do not specifically encompass the act of falsifying payroll records. Employee fraud generally refers to deceitful acts by employees, which could include various types of misconduct beyond payroll issues. Bogus fraud is not a standard term within the realm of fraud discussions and lacks a defined context. Workforce fraud is broader and could imply various other forms of dishonesty related to employees but does not specifically pinpoint payroll manipulations. Thus, payroll fraud is the most accurate term to describe the act of adding a fictitious member of staff to the salary list.