Fraud Advisory Panel

Ninth Annual Review

2006-2007

Chairman’s Overview

The Best Defence

The Panel has dedicated its 2007 annual review to the theme of promoting ethical behaviour.  We feel that high standards in personal, as well as organisational, life are the best defence against fraud and that a climate of corner-cutting and indifference to others allows it to grow.

Experience tells us that too many bad examples are being set and excused in business and the public sector, sometimes at the very top.  When lip service is paid to ethical behaviour without attempts to instil an ethical culture, organisations become more and more vulnerable to fraud from within (already the source of the great majority of financial crime hitting the corporate sector).

More law and regulation is not the answer.  Setting high standards of behaviour, not least towards customers and employees, should be a priority for every governing body, from the smallest enterprise to the largest conglomerate.  In this way, boards of
directors will give a clear signal that not only is good behaviour expected but that it will be rewarded and low standards, let alone downright dishonesty, will not be tolerated.

click above for the full report

Of course very many people in business and public bodies care deeply about standards.  The Fraud Advisory Panel exists only through the support of individuals and organisations who see fraud as a human and social issue as well as a financial one.  My fellow Trustees and I are grateful to them all, and for the support of our Senior Executive Mia Campbell and her colleague Tamaryn Thorburn; Martin Robinson our consultant on Education, Events and Training; and Simon Pearce, who prepared this Review.  A particular word of thanks goes to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (which helped found the Panel and has remained its strongest supporter) and the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.

Rosalind Wright CB QC
October 2007

Fraud Advisory Panel
Chartered Accountants' Hall
PO Box 433, Moorgate Place
London EC2P 2BJ
020 7920 8721
info@fraudadvisorypanel.org