UK companies have a hotline service which can now be provided to staff, courtesy of KPMG.

The new service comes as the firm's Fraud Barometer shows that insider fraud committed by management or staff accounted for more than half (£330m out of £650m) of all fraud coming to court in the first half of 2006.

Called the 'Ethics Line' the service is an independent 24-hour hotline that allows employees to raise genuine concerns about possible fraudulent or improper conduct in confidence, allowing their organisation to take prompt and effective action.

David Luijerink, director at KPMG Forensic, said that colleagues sometimes suspect that fraudulent activity is going on but are reluctant to report or ‘blow the whistle’ due to lack of confidence in internal reporting systems, or fear of victimisation or retribution.

'Employers should do all they can to remove these obstacles, and a whistleblowing hotline is one element of the solution. Statistics suggest that up to 50% of frauds are discovered following an employee blowing the whistle.'

Further reading:

KPMG releases fraud prevention guide