A new survey looking at New Zealand and Australian businesses has found a startling 34 per cent of respondents working for organisations with offshore operations reported a foreign bribery or corruption incident occurring sometime over the past five years.
The 2015 Deloitte Bribery and Corruption Survey canvassed the views of 269 public and private sector organisations across New Zealand and Australia. It also found 23 per cent of respondents reported experiencing one or more known instances of domestic corruption in the last five years.
Of those, more than half occurred in the last 12 months, the survey found.
Deloitte lead forensics partner Barry Jordan said it was the second survey of its type conducted by Deloitte - the first being completed in 2012 - but the first that asked questions about domestic bribery and corruption.
"Almost one in four organisations reporting an incident is a significant level of corruption," Jordan said. "There is no longer any excuse for complacency against this risk.
"Apart from the legal ramifications, which can include heavy fines or even jail time, the long-term reputational damage from corruption can have serious long-term flow on effects on an organisation's bottom line."
The most common types of domestic corruption cited by respondents included undisclosed conflicts of interest, supplier kickbacks and personal favours. More than a quarter (26 per cent) of the reported incidents were from organisations with more than 5000 employees, the survey found, while 68 per cent of incidents involved only private/business individuals. In larger organisations the top discovery method was from tip-offs via a dedicated hotline.
Jordan said the findings highlighted the importance large organisations should place on enabling tip-offs to be made, appropriately received and then actioned.
"Hotline channels have increasing potential in terms of incident detection and deterrence," Jordan said.
However, he concluded, we still have a way to go. "There remains a concerning number of organisations that don't have formal compliance programmes or don't discuss corruption risk at their highest levels." NZME.