The productivity of any business is directly proportional to the happiness and contentment of the workforce. From flexibility to fair pays to reasonable working hours, working professionals, off late, have been demanding well-structured work culture in life. That said, when the same employee violates the rules and regulations, by indulging in unethical practices such as corruption then it invariably hampers the company’s market reputation.
In recent years, the risk of employee fraud has become increasingly prominent across the globe. As per a survey by Kroll advisory services, current and former employees are the biggest perpetrators of fraud in the firms. Recently, D Selvaraj from Pasumalai, an employee of wholesale electronic sales unit in Madurai, India was booked by city crime branch police for cheating his employer of Rs 60 lakh over the period of five years. Selvaraj, who worked as a collection agent in Kumar Electronics used to enter the details of the collection in his personnel dairy daily.
Such a case of unethical misadventure isn’t just confined to the wholesale electronics sale as the recent dependence on the internet has made it easier for the tech-savvy associates to find the loopholes in the existing company policies. Recently, in a brazen act of fraud, two employees of e-commerce giant Amazon, Rashid Jumman, Achal Amol were arrested by Pune’s Police cybercrime cell for duping the company of goods worth lakhs of rupees. The duo took advantage of the company’s tracking system to their advantage as they didn’t update the company’s server of the returned goods, therefore, keeping the items in their custody.
Such incidents, dissuade participants from operating in a particular jurisdiction because of fraud concerns. Where on one hand, India is an attractive destination for foreign investors, on the other, investors are deterred due to fraud, corruption and security concerns. This derails the confidence of the investors and prevents them from investing in the country, thereby contributing to an already increasing employment rate.
The re-emergence of Asia is among the most important shifts that will occur in our lifetimes. With recent technological disruption, this diverse continent is expected to become the world leader very soon. Besides regional superpowers like China and India, smaller countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam and Sri Lanka are turning out to be great examples of robust Development Model.
That said, a recent surge in employee-related fraud in the region continues to impact this development model. For instance, where on one hand, the Bangladeshi garment industry is thriving globally due to its efficient quality delivery, on the other the companies have also fallen prey to apparel fraud. As per a notice published on The Financial Express and Prothom Alo, Rahul Shukla and Sidharth Shukla of Trendz Corporation have been accused of absconding, thereby, avoiding a potential summon/ arrest. The case has been filed by Hong-Kong based Norwest Industries against its former employee Rahul Shukla.
With China losing its ground— owing to its increased production value and an ongoing trade war with the US, it’s expected that Bangladesh may soon get the number 1 garment exporter tag. However, continued incidents like these may impact the existing garment companies in the country, affecting the prospective growth and exports.
Amidst such frauds/ scams in the subcontinent, it becomes quite difficult for the investors, companies, and people in general, to review and identify accurate information about the particular person, to avert losses. Just a few months ago, Sri-Lanka based Blue Mountain property scam left many people stranded without deeds. A number of reports were filed by News 1st on a large number of financial frauds allegedly carried out by Blue Mountain under the guise of real estate in Colombo. As per the article on News 1st, Blue Mountain had first mortgaged the land to a bank and then sold it off to the buyers resulting in the buyer losing both their money and the plot of land.
Such instances can never be fully prevented, and timely highlighting of the cases doesn’t guarantee absolute success. As per the recent market experts, even the best internal processes wouldn’t be able to prevent potential fraud if the external business partner becomes complicit in the process. Thus, of late, companies have adopted various measures of risk mitigation. Among anti-fraud measures, focus on information such as IT security is the most prevalent. For cybersecurity and security risk mitigation measures, in-house security assessment of data and developing securities policy and measures, respectively, are now being most widely used.
