Whilst one has no doubts that defined processes for TA and necessary systems would be in place in most professionally managed COs, yet the 100 Cr TA - Scam happened.
It is high time that the SAV - (Surveillance, Audit & Vigil) departments of these Organisations get alert to the possibilities of big time scams in the TA space.
The TA function is vulnerable to monetary scams as any other procurement or resource supply chain function is particularly when 'Human Talent' is the main high-cost value creating resource ?
At risk particularly are organisations which hire huge numbers of people for their turnkey natiinal and iverseas projects or hire for way-off locations, appoint agencies for senior level hiring where annual billings is very high or works with agencies for on-going temporary man-power staffing requirements of their CO etc.
Sponsoring overseas sojourns in the name of training,
sponsoring foreign education for children, cash pay-outs for purchase of houses, art, electronic items, precious gifts to wives and gifting of other glamorous life-style products are some ways in which I have seen this return value-chain operate. Ofcourse, novelty of the modus-operandi involved ceases to surprise me each time we unearth a pay-back fraud.
Unusually huge agency hiring bills backed alongside by high attrition rate in the organisation should be an eye-opener for tge SAVs. Business Development Departments of such hiring Cos quickly get into business Development mode in such a jiffy once tgey spread their tentacles.
Defined processes for appointment of Talent Sourcing Agencies, regular rotation of TA team, fixation of Agency rates/ fees by Commercial Department and vigil by the SAV team would help curb such scams in vulnerable organisations.
But shame. Our building was strong until now . Other roofs were leaking but not ours. Now our roof is leaking too. Better we fix the building before white-ants set in.
True, this is unfortunately quite widespread... needs more top management monitoring. And more transparency.
Just to focus within and