By IANS
New Delhi : In this age where criminals can digitally flash stolen money around the globe, most companies are unprepared to investigate the frauds promptly if it is in a country other than where they are headquartered, says a survey by a global consultancy released Wednesday.
The KPMG survey of senior business executives in 21 countries, including India, reveals that 92 percent of the respondents said they don't expect any abatement in the number of international fraud investigations in the coming year.
While many expect such investigations to actually go up, 56 percent said they have not implemented comprehensive investigation procedures, with Asia-Pacific headquartered companies having the lowest fraud investigative protocols.
"Fraudsters operate undeterred by global boundaries. Therefore, companies must be increasingly vigilant about their ability to prevent, detect and respond to fraud," said Deepankar Sanwalka, head of KPMG's forensic services.
"Companies need an effective fraud detection and investigative capability that is painstakingly disciplined and lightning fast – a virtual police SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team," Sanwalka said in a statement.
Apart from huge financial losses, inefficient investigative process can severely affect the company's reputation, as also its ability to conduct proper corporate governance, he added.
"Multinationals often develop one-size-fits-all investigative policies across the countries in which they operate but each nation has its own, ever-changing regulatory and policing procedures that can stymie an investigation."
The survey was conducted during late 2006 and 2007 and sought responses from 103 senior executives in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa who are responsible for cross-border investigations.
Its findings say multinational companies, while conducting these investigations, faced a lot of issues like cultural differences, language and legal differences, lack of know-how of their teams and lack of electronic data.
Sanwalka suggested certain ways to improve international investigation of fraud like adopting best-practice mechanisms from other organisations, evaluating the local legal requirements and involving legal counsel.