The accounting firm said more than 3,200 supply chain professionals in the U.S. were surveyed about their use of supply chain forensics and analytics.
The respondents worked in consumer and industrial products, financial services, technology, media and telecommunications, life sciences and healthcare, and energy and resources.
The survey found that the use of analytics to combat third-party supply chain fraud, waste and abuse risk had jumped from 25.2 percent in 2014 to 35 percent in 2017.
However, an average 30.8 percent of those surveyed said they had reported at least one instance of supply chain fraud, waste and abuse in the prior year.
Although it was good news that more organizations were using fraud analytics, there still needed to be a constant effort to mitigate abuse, said Mark Pearson, forensic principal for Deloitte Risk and Financial Advisory (DRFA).
“It’s encouraging to see more organizations using analytics to help prevent and detect financial abuses within supply chains each year,” he said. “Unfortunately, increased vigilance doesn’t translate into lower instances of fraudsters trying to perpetrate their schemes — even the most advanced analytics users should work to constantly evolve their efforts to stem supply chain fraud, waste and abuse.”
