Many Indian organisations faced financial or economic fraud in the past 24 months where procurement fraud emerged as the top threat, a PwC survey said.

PwC’s Global Economic Crime Survey 2024 analysed the responses of 2,446 heads of organisations across the world, of which 91 were from India, on the most disruptive economic crimes affecting their sector and ways of mitigating risks of fraud and non-compliance.

More than 50% of the respondents held top positions and comprised board members, CEOs, managing directors and presidents, PwC said.

It said, “…59% of the Indian organisations surveyed said that they had faced financial or economic fraud in the past 24 months. This is 18% higher than the global average of 41% and 7% higher in India when compared to the results of the 2022 edition of the same survey.” It further said the 2024 edition of the survey indicates that procurement fraud is now a predominant issue for Indian businesses, with 50% of respondents identifying it as a major problem, marking a significant 21% increase compared to the global sentiment.

In contrast, in 2022, customer fraud

was reported as the top concern by 47% of businesses.

Globally, 44% of leaders highlight cybercrime as their top concern, the survey said.

“Historically, one of the oldest economic crimes, procurement fraud involves illegal manipulation of procurement processes for financial gain. This year, half of our respondents in India identified it as their major worry,” Puneet Garkhel, Partner and Leader, Forensic Services at PwC India, said.

Being one of the most disruptive economic crimes, procurement fraud cuts across industries and processes, Garkhel added.

While Indian companies are using data analytics to combat procurement fraud with 52% analysing transactions pre-deal and 46% post-deal, only 37% employ real-time payment monitoring with the capacity to block suspicious transactions.

The survey also revealed that about 33% of all economic crimes are related to corruption and bribery, while 26% of the respondents in India found it to be one of the top three disruptive economic crimes in the past 24 months, the PwC survey said.