India corporate fraud rising: KPMG report

Corporate fraud, particularly involving financial statements, is on the rise in India and internal controls are failing to prevent such abuses, global consultancy KPMG said Wednesday. Forty-five percent of the 1,000 respondents from leading Indian businesses declared that fraud had increased within their organisation, said the study, conducted every two years.
KPMG said 81 percent of respondents reported that fraud involving financial statements was "a major issue". "In an atmosphere of doubt and disbelief financial statements are often viewed with scepticism (in India)," the report said. Corporate fraud has become an increasingly topical issue in India since leading outsourcer Satyam Computer stunned the nation's financial world in 2009 with the admission that its profits had been overstated for years.