The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) have a free report Occupational Fraud: A Study of the Impact of an Economic Recession available from their website.
ACFE President James D. Ratley, CFE says “Desperate people do desperate things. Loyal employees have bills to pay and families to feed. In a good economy, they would never think of committing fraud against their employers. But especially now, organizations must be vigilant during these turbulent times by ensuring proper fraud prevention procedures are in place.”
The survey behind the report also found that:
- Employees pose the greatest fraud threat in the current economy. When asked which, if any, of several categories of fraud increased during the previous 12 months, the largest number of survey respondents (48 percent) indicated that embezzlement was on the rise.
- Layoffs are affecting organisations’ internal control systems. Nearly 60 percent of CFEs who work as in-house fraud examiners reported that their companies had experienced layoffs during the past year. Among those who had experienced layoffs, almost 35 percent said their company had eliminated some controls, while 44.2 percent said the layoffs had no effect on controls and only 3.2 percent said their company had increased controls.
The survey was conducted in the USA in February and March 2009. The findings are still of interest now in Australia.
