Bribery and corruption

ESG has become a critical business area for many companies, with a direct impact on financial performance, both in terms of risks and opportunities. Investors and shareholders increasingly expect sustainability objectives to be met alongside traditional financial and business objectives, while the green credentials of an investment have also become a key factor in financing.

Due to the changing expectations, underperforming on ESG targets impacts on the remuneration of managers, which means they can become interested in presenting their achievements in a more favourable light. In addition to this, producing sustainability data typically involves several departments within a company, so there is scope for manipulation. Among other things, fraud can be directed at

• influencing share prices,
• improving a company’s reputation and external perception,
• influencing the remuneration of management members,
• accessing easier forms of finance on better terms,
• accessing government grants,
• complying with certain standards (e.g. emission standards),
• improving compliance.

KPMG helps to prevent fraud and irregularities and with investigating suspicious cases related to the production, management, aggregation, presentation or reporting of ESG data.

• Preventing data manipulation and investigating suspicious cases (investigation),
• General purpose ESG-focused study (ethics, independence, etc.),
• Investigating abuses in ETS trading.