Speaking at a press conference at 1Sentral here today, PwC Consulting Associates Senior Executive Director and Forensics Lead Alex Tan said although top level management proclaimed that bribery and corruption were unacceptable practices, a sharp rise in incidences suggest that the message might not be getting through.

“For bribery and corruption in particular, the fact that 98 per cent of the Malaysian respondents feel that their top level are sending a clear message that they don’t condone such crimes indicates a disconnect between the tone at the top and the reality on the ground,” he said.

The findings of PwC’s study show that companies in Malaysia continue to underestimate the threat of bribery and corruption as reported incidences have risen from 19 per cent in 2014 to 30 per cent this year.

Tan said that one reason economic crime was hard to combat was that too many organisations failed to give their employees the power to report issues.

“Fear of retribution is usually the main reason holding them back, and this can be an opening easily exploited by would-be criminals who target disempowered employees.

“You can come up with the most robust of policies or training programmes on ethics and use of detection tools but without clear and consistent engagement across the organisation, you’ll be hard pressed to fully get the buy-in of your people for what you stand for as a business in fighting economic crime.”

PwC’s Global Economic Crime Survey 2016 was conducted through an online survey of 6,337 respondents in 115 countries.

Forty-five per cent of the respondents were board level and 30 per cent were heads of department.