UK Businesses Make Good Progress To Support Whistleblowers
Half (54%) of UK businesses now have measures in place to enable
whistleblowers to report fraud related or other suspect activity
which is an increase of 35% compared to last year when only 40% of
UK businesses had whistle blowing hotlines, according to the latest
International Business Report (IBR) survey from finance and
business advisors, Grant Thornton UK LLP.
The survey canvassed the opinion of 500 privately held
businesses in the UK (unlisted companies including family,
entrepreneurial and SME businesses) to garner their opinions on
what fraud prevention practises are in place in their
companies.
This is good news as hotlines are an important safeguard for
both companies and employees and are a key element in creating an
ethical business culture. Equally, the FSA recently reported a
doubling in the number of whistleblowers. This could be down to a
number of reasons but, most likely, the rise is linked to the
economic downturn, when fraud does tend to increase and become more
apparent ,"says Sterl Greenhalgh, Forensic Partner at Grant
Thornton.
"Furthermore, in the current economic climate, where moral
questions have been raised on such issues as MP's expenses and on
the bonuses of high earners, employees may have fewer qualms as
they see it about 'grassing' co-workers continues Greenhalgh.
"Whistleblowers should know that they are currently protected by
the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 which protects against
dismissal and discriminatory treatment providing the whistleblower
has acted in good faith and has not gained personally from the
disclosure," continues Greenhalgh.
Specialist staff responsible for preventing and detecting
fraud
Furthermore, the survey has revealed that 49% of these companies
employ specialists to detect fraud. Again this is an increase from
last year when only 37% had specialists in place. Whilst this is a
relatively low figure, especially considering the Bribery Act has
now passed into legislation, it does show that positive action is
being taken to implement procedures and tools to equip firms to
mitigate fraud risk.
In addition to preventing fraud, these specialists will also
have to respond to the new Bribery Act, which will introduce later
this year a new corporate offence of failing to prevent bribery.
Prevention is better than detection, and preventative measures must
be tailored to each businesses' needs. Companies should begin the
review and revision of their existing policies and procedures for
preventing fraud and anti-competition risk, and adapt and align
these to embrace corruption risk" says Greenhalgh.
"Training staff about corruption will also be critical if they
are to have the confidence of using the company's whistle blowing
hotline," concludes Greenhalgh.
ENDS
For further information, please contact: Suvra Datta, Grant
Thornton press office, 020 7728 2375 or via email on
suvra.datta@gtuk.com