Kroll, in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), conducted a survey of C-suite executives in India to gauge their organizations’ fraud risks. This report set out to benchmark against the first edition launched in 2019. The second edition of the CII-Kroll India Fraud Survey found a higher number of respondents (65%) admitting that their organization was a victim of fraud compared to respondents in the 2019 edition (57%).
With the onset of COVID-19, organizations in India have had to re-evaluate their vulnerabilities and set up defenses to safeguard their businesses from the ever-evolving fraud landscape. Understandably so, the type of frauds suffered changed – with bribery and corruption reducing from 31% in 2019 to 12% in 2021 and data theft reducing from 31% to 17% in the same period. The pandemic brought on a new set of challenges–stretching thin supply chain operations, highlighting weaknesses in internal controls and IT security and presenting a slew of cyber risks. Not surprisingly, as employees started working from home, a fourth of our respondents admitted being victims of cyber fraud. Organizations also witnessed an increase in conflicts-of-interest type of frauds, which went from 10% in 2019 to 26% in 2021. Supply chain or vendor-related fraud incidents also rose from 5% to 14%, highlighting the need for stricter due diligence and internal controls.
The second edition of the CII-Kroll India Fraud Survey also sheds light on how prepared Indian organizations are to combat fraud and the role the government can play to help organizations. A staggering 70% of respondents believed that COVID-19 increased the risk of fraud and almost two-thirds of respondents feel it will continue to increase the risk of fraud in the coming year.
