Whistleblowing procedures in the UK are "often unreliable and not trusted by users", a new report has warned.
A study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has found that just eight per cent of fraud cases come to light because of whistleblowers, suggesting that improvements are needed.
The most common ways of detecting economic crime are internal audits and risk management studies.
However, the research also found that the burden placed on these areas has grown over the last year, with 70 per cent of UK organisations revealing that the recession has led to a greater risk of fraud.
Tony Parton, a partner at PwC, said: "We are in a perfect storm of economic crime right now with increased pressures and opportunities to commit fraud accompanied by fraudsters' growing ability to convince themselves their actions are defensible."
Earlier this year, KPMG predicted that economic crime linked to the downturn would boost demand for forensic accountancy jobs in the coming years.
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