NEARLY one in four Singapore companies was hit by fraud last year, with the majority of the offences committed by male employees hankering for the high-life.
According to the KPMG Singapore Fraud Survey Report released on Thursday, 23 per cent of Singapore's larger companies have experienced fraud.
KPMG polled senior executives working for Singapore's biggest companies, of which 160 responded, including some of the top listed companies, it said.
The 'typical perpetrators', the report said, were men aged 25 to 40 with secondary or college education who had worked with the company for between two and five years.
Some 70 per cent defrauded their firms 'to fuel a lifestyle beyond the perpetrator's means'.
To fatten their wallets, many abused their expense accounts, accepted bribes and kickbacks from vendors, or even rigged bids and engaged in price-fixing, at the expense of their companies.
Their errant ways cost the companies dearly. On average, each fraud sets the company back by $4.4 million last year, up from $1.4 million per incident in 2004. Even well-paid senior employees were not above board, the report revealed.
Greed aside, many also resorted to crime due to 'pressure to meet performance expectations', with many employees resorting to fraud to 'gloss over underperformance, meet their targets or avoid onerous workplace formalities'.
The survey found that technology related shenanigans have also emerged as 'the fastest growing and most pervasive category of fraud' in the business world.
In its 2004 survey, KPMG found that only 19 per cent of fraud was computer related. This rose to 59 per cent last year.
This, said KPMG Singapore forensics head Mr Bob Yap, is due to the 'ever increasing reliance on technology by businesses'.
Finagling financial reports was also on the rise, from 9 per cent in 2004, to 24 per cent last year.
But there are honest and alert employers in the midst of the bad hats. The report said 88 per cent of fraud was uncovered by colleagues who blew the whistle on their dishonest colleagues.
Most of the companies which fell prey to fraud acknowledged - with hindsight - that they could have done more to educate employees to recognise red flags and prevent the fraud from occurring in the first place.
