DOHA: PwC hosted its latest Fraud Forum giving Qatari business leaders opportunity to meet with local and regional experts on the subject of managing conflicts of interest.
PwC’s own Global Economic Crime Survey identified that, of all organisations surveyed in the Middle East, 35 percent had suffered from an incident of bribery or corruption and 33 percent had suffered from fraud in their procurement processes. Whilst it is notoriously difficult to draw a clear link between conflicts of interest and these frauds, the experts and attendees acknowledged the real risk of loss due to unmanaged or undisclosed conflicts of interest between their own staff and other parties, such as suppliers. Attendees heard about the latest trends in conflict detection and management and discussed issues such as how to build effective systems of internal control and disclosure. In addition attendees heard from PwC experts on the variety of sophisticated tools available to them to identify potential conflicts.
James Tebbs, Leader of PwC Qatar’s Forensic Services Team said, “The existence of a conflict of interest is not necessarily a problem - it does not automatically equate to ‘fraud’. What matters is being able to identify and manage the potential conflict so that the individual’s interests are not put above those of the organisation.”
Courtenay Smith, PwC ME Corporate Intelligence Leader added, “Conflicts of interest can be a difficult threat to identify. Taking a layered, proactive, approach is the best means of mitigating and managing the risks associated with conflicts. It is essential to instil a strong cultural awareness through training, policies and procedures; and to couple this with specialised tools designed to monitor for potential conflicts. With these in place, organisations are well positioned to determine what action may need to be taken to prevent fraud from occurring”.
The PwC Fraud Forum is a platform through which attendees can share knowledge and participate in research to help prevent, detect and investigate fraud and economic crime in all its forms.
The Peninsula
