Fraud in the workplace is on the increase in New Zealand. Chances are it’s on the increase in other nations as well, including the United States. With wages getting lower and people of modest means cultivating expensive tastes, fraud is the potential result.
According to an article in the New Zealand Herald, Price Waterhouse reported economic crime on the rise. The increased fraud was attributed to the average salary not being in keeping with a more lavish lifestyle. So…when in doubt, steal.
Said the article…”We’re a relatively low wage economy but we like high-wage living. You look at baches, it’s a New Zealand rite of passage to have a bach. Well, a bach is a million dollars by the beach, isn’t it? How many people can afford a million dollars?”
There were more victims than not, according to the article. Nearly three-quarters of the survey’s local respondents suffered from asset misappropriation. Thirty percent reported accounting fraud.
Eighty per cent of those surveyed from the retail sector were victims of fraud, while 71 per cent of the energy, utilities and mining industry had been hit. Fraud occurred more often with employers with more than than one thousand employees.
As per the report, nearly three quarters of the fraudsters were junior staff members.
Just over half the reported fraud came from within an organisation, and 71 per cent of the perpetrators were junior staff members. Internal employees who committed fraud were largely male with high school educations. And a little less than half the fraudsters had been with their current employers for three to five years.
