Corporate fraud is rampant across the globe, with four out of five senior executives reporting varying levels of threats at their companies, according to Kroll Inc.'s first annual fraud survey. And who is most responsible for uncovering fraud? Finance managers, according to about 60% of those that responded to the survey. In most other cases, it's the chief risk officer, chief compliance officer or the legal staff.
The survey shows that the most widespread strategies implemented to combat fraud and corruption are, not surprisingly, financial controls (used for this purpose by 79% of those polled) and information technology security (used by 70%). That means, of course, that a worrisome 21% and 30% don't use financial controls or IT security, respectively. And that's why international U.S. companies should be concerned, says David Hess, managing director of Kroll's forensic accounting practice.
Many of the companies lacking controls and security are located abroad, with regulatory mandates such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act lessening fraud at home. And with globalization increasing U.S. corporations' relationships with suppliers and partners in more unsophisticated countries abroad, fraud risk should be a top concern, says Hess.
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"Risk assessment must be a subset of enterprise risk management, even in foreign markets, he says. "You need to do proper due diligence of third-party suppliers and partners." Such an evaluation should include fraud indexes, like transparency initiatives, and controls monitoring, at the very least, says Hess.
The survey, conducted in cooperation with the Economist Intelligence Unit, showed that the larger companies are bigger targets. On average, they lose six times more money to corporate fraud than smaller ones. Corruption varies widely. The highest threat is in the Middle East and Africa, where 39% of the executives reported fraud. North America reported the least fraud: 9%.
The 892 senior executives who responded to the survey were equally split between the Asia-Pacific, Europe and North and South America.
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