Overall discrepancy rates rise to 11 pc in Q4 2016: Report

Overall discrepancy rates have increased slightly to 11 per cent in October-December quarter of 2016 with sectors like healthcare, education and hospitality seeing a rise in discrepancies, says a survey.
A study of the case level quarterly discrepancy analysis for the Q4 (October-December 2016) shows that the discrepancy percentage has increased to 11 per cent from 10.6 per cent in the previous quarter.
The education related discrepancies have increased to 5.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2016, from 4.9 per cent in the previous quarter.
"Education fraud has taken the spotlight over the last few month with numerous scams being uncovered, from the fake degrees that are causing deportation of Indian students in New Zealand to the rackets surrounding popular exams to an overwhelming majority of lawyers being found as fake by the BCI," the report said.

As per state-wise discrepancies in the quarter under review, Maharashtra tops the list with 21 per cent discrepancy rates, followed by Karnataka (20 per cent) and Andhra Pradesh (10 per cent).
Discrepancies related to employment, address and education components were at 61.7 per cent, 8.8 per cent and 5.7 per cent respectively, the report added.

"Background screening is critical step that assists employers to get an in-depth information about the candidates and thereby enable them to make more thoughtful decisions by weeding out applicants with fake credentials," First Advantage Managing Director and SVP Purushotam Savlani said.
The report is based on data collected from background verifications and reference checks conducted by First Advantage across India in the fourth quarter 2016.

The results are segmented under critical discrepancy types (employment, education, financial-related, address, and database) that examine the discrepancy breakdown by verticals, states, regions, industry, age, gender and the like.