ATLANTA – The Network, Inc., a leading provider of governance, risk and compliance (GRC) solutions, and BDO Consulting, a division of BDO USA, LLP, today released the 2011 Corporate Governance and Compliance Hotline Benchmarking Report, an annual statistical study of compliance hotline-related activity for the past five years.
According to the benchmarking report’s aggregate data, fraud-related incident reporting for 2010 remained relatively steady at 19.6 percent, a decrease from 20.4 percent in 2009. In addition, incident levels across most categories have varied only slightly for the last few years. The report attributes the steady fraud incident reporting levels to two factors: the slow growth in the U.S. GDP along with persistently high unemployment; and response to legislation such as the Dodd-Frank Act, the UK Bribery Act and the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
Key findings of the 2011 Corporate Governance and Compliance Hotline Benchmarking Report include:
“In this year’s benchmarking report, we’ve expanded our analysis and provided additional data points to help identify the drivers that impact compliance activity,” said Luis Ramos, chief executive officer of The Network. “We’ve extended our best practices benchmarking to take into consideration additional economic and demographic factors so that organizations can better gauge the state of their risk management initiatives.”
Ramos continued, “We hope organizations will utilize this report to improve all aspects of their internal GRC programs, including the detection of issues as well as the processes for resolving and remediating those issues.”
Beginning in 2006, the current five-year period reviewed for the 2011 Corporate Governance and Hotline Benchmarking Report reflects the largest repository of data to date. This report provides an analysis of 564,438 reports made during the review period. In 2010, 122,318 reports were collected from 1,178 organizations representing more than 15 million employees. The data is compiled from actual incidents reported by clients of The Network and was analyzed by BDO and The Network.
Reports are classified in the following industries: Construction; Finance, Insurance & Real Estate; Manufacturing; Mining; Public Administration; Retail Trade; Service Industries; Transportation, Communication & Utilities; and Wholesale Trade.
For more information regarding this benchmarking report, visit www.tnwinc.com or email benchmarking@tnwinc.com. To view a social media version of this news release, visit http://pitch.pe/167350.
About The Network, Inc.
The Network, Inc. is a leading provider of governance, risk and compliance solutions that help organizations mitigate risk and promote organizational compliance. Through the integration of on-demand software and services, The Network helps clients identify, communicate, resolve and mitigate risk issues and incidents. Established more than 29 years ago, The Network serves thousands of organizations in every industry, including nearly 50 percent of the Fortune 500. For more information, visit www.tnwinc.com.
About BDO Consulting
BDO Consulting provides litigation, investigation, business restructuring and risk advisory services to clients in the United States and internationally. Our highly experienced and well-credentialed professionals leverage the global industry and accounting knowledge of the BDO international network, providing rapid, strategic advice to assist our clients.
BDO Consulting is a division of BDO USA, LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership and the U.S. member of BDO International Limited. BDO International Limited is a UK company limited by guarantee, and forms part of the international BDO network of independent member firms. BDO is the brand name for the BDO network and for each of the BDO Member Firms. www.bdoconsulting.com
According to the benchmarking report’s aggregate data, fraud-related incident reporting for 2010 remained relatively steady at 19.6 percent, a decrease from 20.4 percent in 2009. In addition, incident levels across most categories have varied only slightly for the last few years. The report attributes the steady fraud incident reporting levels to two factors: the slow growth in the U.S. GDP along with persistently high unemployment; and response to legislation such as the Dodd-Frank Act, the UK Bribery Act and the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
Key findings of the 2011 Corporate Governance and Compliance Hotline Benchmarking Report include:
- Case Outcome Rate: In 2010, 68 percent of all incidents reported warranted an investigation, and three out of five of those cases resulted in corrective action. For slightly more than one in 10 reports, no outcome could be determined with the information available.
- Web Reporting: In 2008, only 5.58 percent of all incidents were submitted over the web but that number grew to 8.31 percent in 2010.
- Incident Reporting vs. Economic Growth: In 2009, as well as in early 2010, the fraud reporting rate decreased as the GDP increased. However, at the end of 2010, fraud reporting increased as the economic recovery slowed.
- Anonymity: While trends show an increase in anonymity over the past five years, the rate for 2009 and 2010 is evenly divided at 50 percent.
- Means of Awareness: The poster continues to be the most popular means of hotline awareness, followed by word-of-mouth (fellow employees).
- Prior Management Notification and Anonymity: Year-to-year, the number of participants choosing to remain anonymous when not previously reporting the incident remained virtually unchanged (79 percent in 2010), following a significant increase prior to 2009.
- Public Administration: The Public Administration industry employee base increased by 51 percent in 2010 while the total number of reports decreased by 15 percent over the same time period. The 2011 report marks the first time that a full five years of data for this industry has been available for analysis.
- Industry Trends: The industries with the highest overall incident rates continue to be Transportation, Communication & Utilities; Retail Trade; and the Service Industries. However, all three of those industries experienced a decrease in their incident rate in 2010 while the rate for Wholesale Trade increased.
- Incident Categories: Personnel Management, which covers a variety of human resources matters including wages and management interaction, remains the leading incident category across all industries for the fifth straight year. The next most commonly reported incident types regardless of industry in 2010 were Corruption & Fraud, Employment Law Violation, and Company/Professional Code Violation.
“In this year’s benchmarking report, we’ve expanded our analysis and provided additional data points to help identify the drivers that impact compliance activity,” said Luis Ramos, chief executive officer of The Network. “We’ve extended our best practices benchmarking to take into consideration additional economic and demographic factors so that organizations can better gauge the state of their risk management initiatives.”
Ramos continued, “We hope organizations will utilize this report to improve all aspects of their internal GRC programs, including the detection of issues as well as the processes for resolving and remediating those issues.”
Beginning in 2006, the current five-year period reviewed for the 2011 Corporate Governance and Hotline Benchmarking Report reflects the largest repository of data to date. This report provides an analysis of 564,438 reports made during the review period. In 2010, 122,318 reports were collected from 1,178 organizations representing more than 15 million employees. The data is compiled from actual incidents reported by clients of The Network and was analyzed by BDO and The Network.
Reports are classified in the following industries: Construction; Finance, Insurance & Real Estate; Manufacturing; Mining; Public Administration; Retail Trade; Service Industries; Transportation, Communication & Utilities; and Wholesale Trade.
For more information regarding this benchmarking report, visit www.tnwinc.com or email benchmarking@tnwinc.com. To view a social media version of this news release, visit http://pitch.pe/167350.
About The Network, Inc.
The Network, Inc. is a leading provider of governance, risk and compliance solutions that help organizations mitigate risk and promote organizational compliance. Through the integration of on-demand software and services, The Network helps clients identify, communicate, resolve and mitigate risk issues and incidents. Established more than 29 years ago, The Network serves thousands of organizations in every industry, including nearly 50 percent of the Fortune 500. For more information, visit www.tnwinc.com.
About BDO Consulting
BDO Consulting provides litigation, investigation, business restructuring and risk advisory services to clients in the United States and internationally. Our highly experienced and well-credentialed professionals leverage the global industry and accounting knowledge of the BDO international network, providing rapid, strategic advice to assist our clients.
BDO Consulting is a division of BDO USA, LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership and the U.S. member of BDO International Limited. BDO International Limited is a UK company limited by guarantee, and forms part of the international BDO network of independent member firms. BDO is the brand name for the BDO network and for each of the BDO Member Firms. www.bdoconsulting.com