Economic crime in Malaysia on the rise — PwC survey

KUALA LUMPUR: Economic crime in Malaysia has risen over the last two years, consistent with the global trend, according to PwC’s Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey 2018.

Of the respondents, 41 per cent experienced such crime compared with 28 per cent in 2016, PwC said in a statement, adding that organisations were still not taking sufficient measures to protect themselves against fraud.

Business conduct/misconduct takes the top spot in the poll (45 per cent oftherespondents), overtaking asset misappropriation ( 41 per cent) and bribery and corruption (35 per cent) as the most pervasive economic crime in Malaysia.

“Organisations are feeling the pressure to weed out fraud at the highest levels, especially with declining public tolerance for bribery and corruption. We believe they can start by tackling the root of the problem: organisational culture,” said PwC Malaysia Managing Partner Sridharan Nair.

In the statement, PwC said following the 14th General Election in May, the focus on addressing bribery and corruption was expected to increase under the new government. The Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey 2018 was completed by 7,228 respondents from 123 territories, including 124 respondents from Malaysia.

The poll was conducted from June 21 to Sept 28, 2017. The Malaysian respondents represented 19 industries. More than half of them were from publicly listed companies.

Sridharan said it was also encouraging that 75 per cent of the respondents had a formal business ethics and compliance programme in place, highlighting that a change from within should be an active ingredient in the remedy against fraud and economic crime.