Employees in 31-40 age group commit 61% of economic crimes: Report

Mumbai: Around 61 percent of the economic crimes in the country are committed by employees within an organisation which fall under the age group of 31-40 years, according to a report by PwC.

Besides, more than one in every four organisations is getting impacted by economic crimes, the report which was unveiled here Friday, said.

As per the report, in 43 percent of the cases, a middle level employee is the main perpetrator of the crime as against 35 percent globally. Around 61 percent of them are in the 31-40 age-group, which is significantly higher than the global average of 42 percent, the report said.

The report is the outcome of a survey which was conducted by the organisations across 17 industry sectors in the country between July, 2015 and February, 2016.

"Companies need to adapt their risk assessment and control frameworks fast enough to prevent such crimes. Many companies no longer want compliance to be just a 'tick in the box' exercise and are investing more and more in comprehensive compliance and monitoring programmes," PwC India partner and leader, forensic services, Dinesh Anand said.

"The true cost of economic crime to the country's economy is difficult to estimate, especially considering that actual financial loss is often only a small component of the fallout from a serious incident. The reputation cost of such crimes is often much higher," he added.

According to the survey, asset misappropriation was the most common type of economic crime in the country over the last 24 months, followed by procurement fraud and bribery and corruption.

Around 56 percent of the residents in the country perceived an increased risk of cybercrime over the past two years as compared to 53 percent globally. Again, 16 percent of the organisations in the country against 14 percent globally, experienced cybercrimes amounting to more than USD 1 million in the past two years, the report said.

Only 45 percent of the organisations have fully trained cybercrime first responders. Around 88 per cent of the responding organisations in the country have a formal business ethics and compliance programme, it said.

Around 56 percent of the responding organisations in the country witnessed an increase in their spend on compliance programmes and resources, while 94 percent of them stated that their organisations had a clear code of conduct.

However, 15 percent of respondents indicated their leaders did not walk the talk, 24 percent mentioned unclear communication and training, and 19 percent feared retaliation for reporting a violation, the report said.