Middle East Fraud Survey

We are pleased to launch the Middle East Fraud Survey report, illustrating how organisations in the Middle East have been affected by fraud during the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

Over 100 respondents across a spectrum of industries in both the public and private sector participated in the digital questionnaire. The report covers the impact of financial as well as non-financial fraud, company responses when faced with a fraud-related incident and measures that organisations have taken to mitigate the fraud risks.

Here are some of our key findings:

• The survey indicates that 48% of participants have witnessed more fraudulent incidents this year as compared to earlier years, and 35% felt it has increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• More than two-thirds of the respondents feel that the current business and economic disruptions could increase fraud risk in their organisations over the next two years.
  
• 55% of the respondents have a basic policy level fraud risk framework such as anti-fraud, code of conduct and anti-bribery and corruption policy. However, they lacked other necessary elements such as periodic training, senior management reporting, periodic fraud risk assessment and dedicated anti-fraud technologies. 
• 41% of the companies do not have a dedicated fraud risk management and investigation team and feel that the current fraud risk framework is not adequate to prevent and mitigate the risk of future fraud.

If you would like to discuss the findings in more detail, please reach out to our dedicated team:

- Collin Keeney, Partner, Forensic
- Prabodh Newar, Assistant Director, Forensic