Sanpo-yoshi Communication

President's Column] Fraud

Fraudulent receipt of many subsidies and grants has come to light. Those involving METI carriers and IRS officials have been widely reported in the press, and we are sure you have heard about them as well.

Some have already been sentenced to jail time. It seems that many of them have been adopted with a simple screening process based on a good nature in order to speed up the payment due to this corona disaster. The government is calling for those who are aware that they have received unfair benefits to return them voluntarily, but it is expected that more cases will be brought to court in the future.

Other examples of corporate malfeasance include the problem of mislabeling the origin of clams from Kumamoto Prefecture, employees of financial institutions stealing customers' money, and major manufacturers falsifying quality inspections, to name just a few.

If fraud is exposed, it is inevitable that the corporate image and brand value will be damaged, even if the fraud is committed by a single employee, not to mention if it is company-wide. Sales, recruitment, and fund-raising will also be affected. We must also pay attention to employee misconduct within the company.

I am ashamed to say that in the past, we have punished employees for fraudulent activities such as business trips, misappropriation of collections, theft of goods, misappropriation of expenses, and misrepresentation of working hours. Many have left the company as a result. In one case, it was discovered that an employee had distributed goods from the company's warehouse to employees without accounting for them. They did not have the slightest sense of guilt. I was made to reflect on the fact that I was still too lax in my approach.

The theme of the June 20 issue of Nikkei Business, to which I subscribe, was "The 5 Rules to Save Your Company and Yourself from Fraud. The article summarizes the following as countermeasures: (1) promote dialogue among employees (transcending the boundaries of responsibilities and changing the "culture of not speaking up"), (2) listen to customers' opinions (gather painful truths and share them with executives), (3) detect fraud early (enhance internal reporting system), (4) visualize the organization (break down vertical divisions and become "one team"), and (5) use outside eyes (utilize digital technology). In particular, (5) is the use of AI to collect accounting books. Particularly, (5) is the use of AI to detect signs of fraud from accounting books and daily e-mails.

In any case, the basic principle of fraud prevention is "double-checking. Kyocera's Honorary Chairman Inamori also always emphasizes the importance of "double-checking. He believes that lax management by a company can turn employees into criminals.

I renewed my commitment to manage the company with fairness and impartiality, and to ensure that our employees are not under the spell of our strict internal systems.