Corruption and bribery account for more than 25 per cent of corporate frauds in India, according to a survey commissioned by New York-based risk consultancy firm Kroll Inc.
About 770 senior executives, working in domestic and multinational companies across industries worldwide, were interviewed and almost three-quarters of the executives said they had encountered fraudulent practices in their firms during the last calendar year. In India 80 per cent of the respondents said they had come across the practice. Other categories included regulatory compliance breach at 20 percent, intellectual property theft at 15 per cent and money laundering at 7.5 per cent. Corporate governance issues, lack of proper implementation of accounting standards and financial regulations were responsible for the frauds, according to the survey.
“India Inc. is highly susceptible to insider fraud and I believe companies are beginning to understand that they need to do more to mitigate this risk,” Reshmi Khurana, Managing Director and Head of South Asia, Kroll, said in a statement. “While it is crucial to deal with this issue in the recruitment process, to truly safeguard against insider fraud, companies need to do more than just enhance their screening processes. They need to tighten their IT security, develop a strong whistle-blower policy and better understand how insider fraud is committed in their organisation. This will help curtail future occurrences of fraud.”
