Is India Inc well equipped to tackle fraud?

Although several recent surveys involving India's CXOs have indicated a good understanding of fraud and measures to mitigate it, there appears to be a major gap in how these are implemented on the ground, reveals a study by Deloitte. Around half of the 250 CXOs, who took the online assessment by Deloitte Forensic India said they had fraud risk management in place. A snapshot of the analysis:

MEASURES TAKEN TO PREVENT FRAUD

• 86% of the respondents indicated that they had a written code of conduct for employees but only 53% highlighted that employees were required to sign it annually
• 75% have identified people within their organisations who can resolve employee queries on ethical dilemmas and guide them on understanding the code of conduct better
• 57% of the respondents indicated that their organisations did not conduct independent fraud risk assessment of key functions and processes every two years

MEASURES TAKEN TO DETECT FRAUD

• 37% of the respondents indicated that over 75% of their processes were automated and integrated via an ERP system, and managed centrally
• 30% highlighted that they did not have a whistle-blower hotline to detect fraud. Another 59% indicated that they had whistle-blowing hotlines managed internally
• 54% of the respondents indicated that they were able to detect less than 2 instances of fraud in the past financial year

MEASURES TAKEN TO RESPOND TO FRAUD

• 60% of the respondents indicated that they did not know whether their organisations had a formally documented fraud response plan
• 51% had an effective system that can receive, manage and track allegations; 45% said they assigned the matter to an independent party for investigation

Source: How prepared is Corporate India to tackle fraud? An analysis of responses to Deloitte Forensic India's Fraud Risk Score self-assessment tool, August 2016