Johannesburg — In SA, fraud most common in infrastructure, government and healthcare, followed by information, communication and entertainment - KPMG survey

THE number of employees either directly or indirectly involved in company losses has surged in the past two years, according to a fraud survey by international accounting and consulting firm KPMG.

In SA, fraud was most common in the infrastructure, government and healthcare sectors, followed by information, communication and entertainment.

KPMG's Profile of a Fraudster Survey 2007, based on fraud investigations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, shows companies are losing money daily because of the fraudulent behaviour of employees.

The report showed 89% of those investigated were employees committing fraudulent acts. In 2005, that figure was 75% .

All sectors were almost equally affected by white collar crime, except for the chemicals, pharmaceuticals and biotech sectors, which appeared to be less impaired.

Hendrik van Rooyen, CEO of the Polygraph Institute of SA's Integrity Assessment Centre, said recently 91% of frauds profiled by KPMG had committed fraud in the workplace more than once.

"Dishonesty is endemic. I t happens in all sectors of the economy - financial, manufacturing, retail, wholesale, distribution, security, you name it, " he said .

White-collar crime could not be justified by poverty alone as the perpetrators were earning an income . However, a work environment that was conducive to dishonesty and unethical behaviour generally created opportunities for misconduct , he said.

He said employers needed to look at implementing an employee integrity management programme in order to combat deceitful behaviour in the workplace.

"To address potential fraud and theft, ongoing staff evaluation programmes need to be in place," said Van Rooyen.

"P rogrammes could include random polygraph and psychometric testing."

Van Rooyen estimated that the centre conducted 700- 900 polygraph tests a month. Annually, 20000-30000 tests are performed nationally .

The number of cases where it had encountered deception was about 24% of all polygraphs it conducted, and in about 2% of the cases staff were not able to express an opinion .

"In these cases we would generally re-examine to obtain conclusive results," he said .

Van Rooyen said a number of his clients were now using polygraph tests to observe whether employees were adhering to ethical behaviour.

"Usually, a relatively small number of employees would perpetrate the majority of incidents of unacceptable behaviour within a specific environment.

"This underscores the absolute need to properly screen employees before they are appointed," he said .