In the five Fraud Surveys conducted by KPMG Forensic Accounting, corporate India has reported losses due to fraud in excess of Rs 500 crore. That is a large amount to lose. Nonetheless, that is only magnified by the knowledge that a large part of such losses are not reported, detected or quantified. We liken these reported losses to the tip of the proverbial iceberg, what one sees is only a small percentage of the real problem. Fraud encapsulates the key elements of deception or concealment and deprival or loss to the victim.
People become fraudsters when motive coincides with opportunity.
In a typical corporate fraud, a company's Project Manager was allegedly favouring one contractor and receiving kickbacks in return. It was also alleged that he was misusing office facilities and treating the project site as his fiefdom. Our investigation revealed that the supplier was appointed by this project manager in a fictitious meeting and that the former's capability statement was not correct. Further, the contractor was getting paid for work not even done and that this was possible due to collusion between the company's project manager and accounts manager. A large part of frauds occurring within the Indian environment are of this nature, where many employees know about it but look the other way.