As companies battle through the recession they will have to aware of fraud and corruption occurring within the organisation. These economic hard times means employees are more likely to commit fraud and engage in criminal activity than usual. Companies operating in new countries should make themselves aware of business conduct especially if they are going to be trading in Eastern Europe and Russia where corruption is rife in their government agencies.
I recently read in a survey by KPMG that two-thirds of companies believed that it would be impossible to conduct business without being involved in corruption, bribery and other illegal schemes in some countries around the world. Yet only 35 per cent had stopped doing business in the countries in question and almost half surveyed didn’t have any strategy in place to prevent staff from being tangled up in corruption and fraud schemes. Therefore this presents a huge risk to employees; no policy in place leaves employees at risk of major fines and damage to their reputation.
As competition is stiff at the moment and companies are under pressure to win new contracts the threat of corruption and scams is far greater, there will be huge pressure for the sales team to bypass corruption and anti-bribery laws.
The advice is to ensure that due diligence is being carried out correction either in house or via third party to minimise the risk to the business of corruption and fraud schemes. Regular audits should be carried out to ensure policies are being followed correctly. Staff should be regularly reminded of what these policies in order to protect them and the business.
The penalties of not carrying out due diligence are severe so the cost of not doing them is definitely outweighed plus the huge impact it would have on the reputation of the company. Possible penalties include fines and in certain circumstances imprisonment.
To learn how to protect your business from corruption, bribery and avoid being the victim of fraud schemes and scams book your senior team into the next corporate seminar that deals with these security related issues.
Marcus Evans scam and corruption seminars regularly take place around the globe so check out the next date for when it will be arriving near in your country.
