The procurement function is vulnerable to various risks such as kickbacks, bribery, conflicts of interest, fabricating paperwork, "lost" paperwork, counterfeiting, tax evasion, and procurement fraud. To mitigate these risks, procurement organizations should focus on supplier selection, procurement risk practices, product pricing, cost, and spend, the procurement organization, subcontractors, key master data, and invoicing. These areas are often associated with fraud, and procurement organizations should take steps to mitigate these risks. The increased use of technology has facilitated distributed buying, moving an increasing percentage of procurement activity outside of the procurement function.
