TIME TO STOP SWEEPING INSIDER FRAUD UNDER THE CARPET

So, it’s official: employee fraud is marching north yet again! But is this crime one we’ll ever get to grips with?

Listening to Richard Hurley of CIFAS on BBC Radio 4 the other day, I was left in no doubts as to the answer. It was resounding ‘no’.

CIFAS will be unveiling their insider fraud figures for 2010 in the next few days, and they will record yet another predictable increase.

The rise won’t necessarily be as high as the 40% growth recorded by the fraud-fighting organisation 12 months ago. But it will, nonetheless, still be a substantial growth that will make headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Yet I’m not sure that an increase in employee fraud is really the story.

For me, of far greater importance is the claim made by Hurley in his radio interview that many employers in the UK continue to sweep the insider fraud problem under the carpet.

As anyone who is involved in combating fraud will tell you, this phenomenon is something that has been going on for a long time. Why? Because a lot of organisations are simply too embarrassed to admit they have been cheated by someone on the inside.

Faced with the prospect of punishing a perpetrator of insider fraud through the correct channels (i.e. the police and the law courts), many remain willing to turn a blind eye. And it looks like 2010 will be another year that many wrong doers have escaped justice because their employers feared external scrutiny would tarnish their own corporate reputations.

Considering everything UK businesses and people-at-large are experiencing at the present time, I think this is a sad indictment of the corporate world – and its out-of-date set of values.

Of course there’s a risk in exposing fraud, and there’s no guarantee the internal controls and procedures of any business won’t be criticised.

But I’d rather be censored for doing something at the earliest opportunity than crucified by the press and other third parties for seemingly condoning fraud and greed.

For that’s the very real risk any company that sweeps this issue under the carpet faces. And being shamed in public is precisely the right thing to do.

To do nothing is tantamount to encouraging members of staff to dip their fingers in the till. It’s also a recipe for disaster, as someone who leaves one job under a cloud will simply find new opportunities elsewhere to continue their pilfering ways.

It’s about time we all woke up to this fact and businesses started to behave with integrity – and the utmost honesty.

I welcome the day this happens. I'm sure it will – eventually. But to expect a major sea change in 2011 may be just a little bit premature!