Corporate Fraud & Corruption – Australia: Annual Review 2020

In this Q&A with Financier Worldwide, Mark Pulvirenti shares his insights into the latest trends in corporate fraud & corruption in Australia including recent regulatory developments, key steps to addressing suspicions of fraud or corruption in an organisation and tips on implementing robust fraud and corruption risk management processes at your company.

This is an extract from Financier Worldwide Ltd, first published in May 2020. The whole publication is available at https://www.financierworldwide.com/annual-review-corporate-fraud-corruption-2020#.XrHCw6hKg2w

“Q. To what extent are boards and senior executives in Australia taking proactive steps to reduce incidences of fraud and corruption from surfacing within their company?

PULVIRENTI: There is a mixed appetite across Australian corporates for proactive fraud and corruption risk management. While some typically larger, more sophisticated companies proactively work on compliance programmes and devote senior resources to overseeing efforts internally, most could best be described as ‘works in progress’. Few companies address fraud and corruption effectively as an operational risk or take the time to identify and articulate the many fraud and corruption risks in a fraud and corruption risk register. These companies typically have certain anti-fraud and corruption procedures in place, for example they have a code of conduct, may engage in training employees and have a whistleblower hotline. However, these procedures are not typically tailored to identified fraud and corruption risks, they lack appropriate leadership and resources and they are often inadequate. Our observations have been that boards are generally reluctant to invest in fraud and corruption risk management in the absence of a previous significant fraud or corruption incident. However, with foreshadowed legislative amendments and the need for ‘adequate procedures’, boards will need to reassess their companies’ positions.”

Permission to use this reprint has been granted by the publisher.