PwC Finds Little Stealing in Russia
The direct loss caused to Russia companies by economic crimes since 2005 is $12.8 million, according to the calculations published yesterday in joint research by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Martin Luther University in Germany. The Russian State Duma considers that figure strongly underestimated.
The study found that 43 percent of the companies of the world were the victims of crime, leading to a summary loss of $4.2 billion. Russian companies were more likely to be struck than the world average, with a rate of 59 percent. That is 10 percent greater than the figure for 2005 and 9 percent greater than the average for Central and Eastern Europe. PwC estimated the losses to Russian companies this year at $12.8 million, triple the losses for 2005. The calculations are based on 125 companies.
Viktor Pleskachevsky, chairman of the Duma Committee on Property, told Kommersant that “In reality, the problem is much more large-scale. For a company of the level of Gazprom, it obviously isn't $12 million.” He noted that many companies underreport loss due to crime for the sake of their images.
The most common form of economic crime (43 percent) is appropriation of assets, usually by managers. The next most common form of crime is corruption (34 percent). The study found that 41 percent of the criminals in Russian companies were in managerial positions. Roger Stanley, a PwC partner and one of the authors of the study, told Kommersant that, in 2005, 7 percent of crimes were uncovered through audits, and 31 percent by chance. This year, audits uncovered 21 percent of the crimes, and corporate security service sniffed out another 35 percent. He opined that the “reputational responsibility of management” needed to be raised in Russia.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 18, 2007
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