The 2005 Oversight Systems Report on Corporate Fraud, published last week by Oversight Systems surveyed certified fraud examiners in order to report the trends, risks and major concerns that businesses face today.

According to Oversight, nearly two-thirds of respondents (65%) indicated that SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley) has been somewhat or very effective in identifying incidences of financial-statement fraud, and only 19% of those surveyed found SOX to be ineffective.

Although respondents agreed that SOX serves to identify fraudulent activity, they did not feel the recent cultural change among US business leaders toward institutional integrity and fraud prevention in the wake of account scandals is likely to "stick".

Only 17% expressed the belief that there will be a shift among business leaders to institutional integrity and fraud prevention for the foreseeable future. The remainder of respondents possessed a more stark outlook, reporting that interest in such actions will fade in the next five years (39%); that vigilance has already begun to fade (32%); or that there has been no change among business leaders (12%).

“The findings of this survey foreshadow a real need for continued vigilance among executives toward institutional fraud,” observed Oversight's CEO, Patrick Taylor, continuing:

“SOX legislation and the intense focus on corporate scandals have helped battle this type of white-collar crime, but professionals seem to be worried that the C-suite might quickly lose interest in policing corporate fraud.”