The Indian software industry is flooded with fake CVs and the leading software companies have begun taking stringent action on the employees as well as all concerned people. Indian knowledge workers are upwardly mobile and in great demand globally.

The recent “India Fraud Survey Report – 2008” by KPMG emphasizes the alarming rise in fraudulent documentation by employees.

With the recent spate of documentation fraud, NOSTOPS has launched a new initiative that will serve as an online databank of live ‘verified & screened’ knowledge workers, which employers use to query & authenticate prospective employees.

Rajiv Dabhadkar, Founder – NOSTOPS and the CEO –‘ NOSTOPS.ORG’ said that “There is a large gap between the multiple skills
demanded from the employer (required to remain globally competitive) and the skills learnt in educational institutions. This industry-academia mismatch is one of the affects of globalisation that gives opportunities for ‘document abuse’, which is seriously manipulated & misused towards the outward migration of Indian knowledge capital as well".

"Every industry has a small lot of - not so right people and the recruiting industry is no exception. NOSTOPS has been striving hard to set right this malady. Through this initiative we hope to begin making the difference to our members by
providing them an opportunity to do the right thing… and to be sought by the employers rather than beating the system or by
opting for services from little known agencies/people wherein monitoring quality service from them will be very difficult.”
said Mr. Dabhadkar.

About 60 per cent of Indian firms have detected frauds in past two years, according to the KPMG report and India Inc is still
unprepared to handle this menace. Making the situation even worse, at least 5 per cent companies have had losses exceeding Rs 10 crore (Rs 100 million) and more than double of them have estimated the hit on their bottom lines in the range of Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million) to Rs 10 crore.

According to the “India Fraud Survey Report – 2008” survey, over 70 per cent of companies believe that fraud in India would
further increase in next two years, while over 80 per cent respondents recognised fraud as a problem in the corporate
environment in the country. Indicating about 54 per cent rise in the number of fraud occurrences since the previous survey in
2006, about 60 per cent of respondents confirmed having experienced fraud at their companies, as against just 39 per cent two years ago

While noting that actual cost of fraud to business was difficult to estimate as not all are discovered, KPMG said that 31 per cent of those surveyed suffered losses of Rs 10 lakh (Rs 1 million) to Rs 1 crore, while 11 per cent put the losses at Rs 1-10 crore and another 5 per cent at more than Rs 10 crore. However, it was less than Rs 10 lakh for about 53 per cent.

The financial services sector has retained its position as the most susceptible to frauds, while real estate and infrastructure surpassed IT and ITeS as the second most risky business in this regard, the survey found.

The report further pointed out that threat of fraud comes mostly from within the organisation. Majority of those surveyed felt that "employees pose the maximum threat to an organisation and the senior management is more likely to commit fraud as
compared to other employees."

According to other findings of the survey, over 75 per cent of companies believe that fraud remaining undetected is their
biggest concern, followed by inadequacy of anti-fraud measures and unethical behaviour of their employees.

KPMG said that the dual impact of two concerns, unethical behaviour of employees and inadequacy of anti-fraud measures, leads to an environment where both inclination and opportunity co-exist. 'This could mean that organisations in India that remain passive in their approach to deal with fraud may be a perfect breeding ground for fraud,' it added.

After employees, the maximum threat is perceived from suppliers and service providers, KPMG said. 'With the increase in the number of business transactions combined with the lack of effective monitoring, frauds are a real time threat for most corporates in India. It comes as a surprise that even the larger companies operating in India do not have adequate risk management strategies,' KPMG India's Forensic Services head Deepankar Sanwalka said.