*NEWS*AUSSIES WORLD LEADERS IN FRAUD CASE

Australia world leader in fraud cases
Corporate crime costs dearly
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than 60 per cent of Australian businesses have reported fraud cases in
the past two years, one of the highest rates reported in the world, a
survey shows.
Australia had the highest rate of detection of
economic crimes in the Asia-Pacific region for the second consecutive
time, the PricewaterhouseCoopers study finds.
In Australia, 63 per
cent of businesses reported they had detected fraud, up 16 percentage
points from 2003, while globally the reporting of such crime increased
from 37 to 45 per cent of all businesses surveyed.
Australia’s rate
of fraud detection compared with 16 per cent in Singapore, Britain’s 55
per cent, France’s 47 per cent and Switzerland’s 37 per cent.
Only South Africa had a higher rate of detection – 83 per cent.
“Economic
crime is serious and costs Australian businesses an average of $3.1
million per organisation,” PricewaterhouseCoopers partner of
investigation and forensic services Malcolm Shackell said.
“This is significantly higher than the global average cost per incident of $2.4 million.”
In
Australia, businesses on average suffered 15 incidents of economic
crime over the past two years compared with a global average of eight.
Big companies were the worst affected – all Australian businesses with more than 5000 employees reported economic crimes.
One in three of companies with under 200 employees had the same problem.
“No business regardless of size, organisational structure or industry is immune to fraud, Mr Shackell said.
PricewaterhouseCoopers
suggested that a flattening of organisational structures, rapid growth
in some sectors and the speed of technological developments might be
behind Australia’s high rate.
Good corporate governance might have also contributed to higher detection rates, it said.
The
typical perpetrator in Australia was a male aged in his 40s with a high
school education, but globally the trend was towards a younger,
better-educated offender.
The most common type of frauds in the
Australian survey were misappropriation of money or equipment – at a
rate of 78 per cent – and false pretences, at 58 per cent.
Money
laundering was a new entrant for Australian businesses – up from zero
per cent in 2003 to 6 per cent, while the reported incidents of
corruption and bribery rose from 1 per cent to 23 per cent.
The Global Economic Crime Survey was conducted in 34 countries over six months this year.
The Australian report was based on 101 leading businesses from a cross section of industry.