Accountants report seventy cases of corruption (FD)

The government challenges the image that the accountant does not want to comply with the reporting requirement.

Vasco van der Boon

Reports of accountants on unusual transactions over the last five years, 70 serious signs of corruption in the business. Of these, the public prosecutor's office and the Fiod anti-corruption center have now selected seven for a criminal investigation. The other cases were partly transmitted to the tax authorities

Fiod-Inval health care sector

This information is reported by the Fiod survey service, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and the Ministry public at Het Financieele Dagblad. The three authorities gave explanations on the raid on Tuesday by a Dutch provider of medical resources. The Fiod suspects this society of corrupting doctors. This is one of the corruption cases that arise from auditors' reports

In recent years, auditors have reported 1,100 unusual transactions to the FIU each year. After a first weighing, the FIU sends some of it to the investigation services as suspicious. Since 2011, 1,300 have been classified as suspects. According to a recent evaluation study conducted by the Anti-Corruption Center, the FIU and the Public Prosecutor's Office, a suspicion of corruption was found in 70 cases.

Tax Component of Bribes

In 63 cases, no criminal investigation was opened. Some of these elements have been transmitted to the tax authorities under certain conditions. "Because bribes often have a fiscal component," says Desirée van der Hoorn of Fiod, who explained the explanation with Sonja Corstanje of the CRF and Daniëlle Goudriaan of the Public Ministry

the exception of the medical device provider, also Fiod incursions into two other corruption investigations as a result of the auditors' reports. At the end of February, a real estate agent was raided and in early October in a temporary agency. & # 39; The selected elements are a mixture of branches. Issues having an effect also triggering a movement within an industry, "said Van der Hoorn.

Payments to foreign parties

The other four corruption cases also include suspicion of corporate bribery of foreign officials, or businesspeople, and bribe payments to foreign agents.These criminal investigations take longer, as requests for legal aid from Foreigners take longer.

The Fiod project manager believes that the reports of the unusual operations accountants are important because they sit on the board of directors of the company and, due to their audit task, have a good idea of ​​what is happening.a company is coming in.The accountants are interesting sources for the reports, she said, because the banks, the shareholders and the company base their trust in a company on the opinion of the auditor.

Gatekeepers

The picture that accountants do not want all. report, according to the three is unjustified. "The cooperation with these gatekeepers is going well and always better. For example, we recently held meetings with the AFM, the Bureau of Financial Supervision, the two NBA and SRA branch organizations, the big four accounting firms and the smaller ones, in order to exchange knowledge. "Van der Hoorn explains. A learning moment in this context has shown that auditors should indicate as many contexts and details as possible about an unusual transaction if the survey is to take action. legal obligation to report fraud signals. Van der Hoorn: "A recurring theme of discussion is whether potential fraud is important enough to report."

Financial Consequences

The willingness of the vast majority of accountants to report unusual transactions has, according to all three, the government can not complain. Van der Hoorn: "Most accountants realize that being aware of every possible fraud can almost always have major financial consequences for a business and can become significant. Accountants are not an extension of justice, but it helps them if they are better able to meet their legal obligation to report. "

The Anti-Corruption Center also wishes to seek cooperation with comparable custodians of the financial sector such as tax advisers, banks, the trust sector and notaries." At an international congress of the authorities Detection in Washington next week, the Dutch Anti-Corruption Center will examine the effectiveness of the cooperative with accountants.

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