By Emma Okonji
Background check has been identified as a key tool that can assist corporate organisations confront the challenges posed by the current economic recession in the country.
Corporate organisations are therefore advised to see background check as the overall importance and a critical tool for conducting due diligence on all issues confronting the daily procedures in organisations.
The Managing Director, Background Check International (BCI), Mr. Kola Olugbodi who made the disclosure in Lagos recently, also urged corporate organisations to embrace background check and institute it as a corporate culture to entrench values and due diligence procedures to eliminate fraudulent claims.
Olugbodi also asserted that there is the need to verify the claims people make. There is the need to make a culture of background check and ensure that employees are thoroughly investigated and screened before employment. Investment in background check provides adequate information that enhances decision making. Organisations should no longer gamble about background check.
Most losses in organisations in terms of deliberate illegal acts, fraud, sharp practices are committed by employees. In these times of recession, organisations should block all sources fraud and wastages in the system. All these fraudulent acts and malpractice should be checkmated. Background check is desirable in all areas of life, Olugbodi advised.
He further charged organisations to focus on background check as a vital corporate governance tool to eliminate fraud.
According to him, “In these times of recession, organisations should block all sources fraud and wastages in the system. Background check is the process of verifying claims and conducting proper checks on people or organisations as the case may be.
Background check has become imperative for corporate organisations to adopt a workable action plan to thoroughly evaluate and investigate claims by employees or business investors as the case may be.”
Background check is not limited to employees only but it also cuts across every strata of the society. The significant role of background check in eliminating fraudulent claims and false information needs to be highlighted and accorded its rightful place by all and sundry. When this is done appropriately, all hands should be on the deck to ensure that background screening is established as not only a culture but also a norm in every facet of our lives, he said.
Olugbodi further charged organisations to ensure proper guidelines are put in place in terms of staff employment. According to him, a major way to guide against growing wave of fraud and related crime in corporate organisations is through screening of the prospective staff ahead of their final engagement. It should also become a matter of policy for corporate organisations to not only audit new staff but also the old staff to forestall the incidences of theft and malpractices among other misdemeanor.
Corporate organisations should not be in haste to employ staff without conducting thorough background screening as such hasty decision exposes the tangible and intangible resources of the organisation to fraud and abuse.
Background screening is very apt to eliminate fraud and other unethical behavior that are prevalent in corporate organisations, Olugbodi said.
