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Survey: Slovak Companies Fear Growth in Economic Crime
Sunday 22 November 2009 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, November 22 (TASR) - Slovak companies expect a rise in economic crime in the future, according to a global survey carried out by Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PWC).
"Almost one-third of Slovak companies are still worried about the risk of becoming victims of corruption. The reality is much worse, however," said Jan Vylita from PWC.
Apart from corruption and bribery, the misappropriation of assets ranks high among possible fraud feared by 22 percent of Slovak companies. The falsification of financial results causes concern among 14 percent.
However, there is also a positive side to all the growing concerns. "Being aware of the risks is the first step to successful protection," said Vylita.
Despite this, some 50 percent of all fraud is revealed by accident. According to the respondents, however, a number of increasingly efficient control mechanisms are available, such as internal audits, fraud risk management and automatic notifications of suspicious transactions.
The survey also confirmed that companies tend to be most vulnerable to "inside jobs", as more than half of cases of fraud are committed by employees. In more than 56 percent of cases, a member of middle or top management was involved. Vylita thinks that this fact might be attributed to greater pressure exerted on management during an economic crisis.
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