A fraud barometer has been released in Australia by accounting group KPMG, which revealed that in the 18 months to June company management had committed the most frauds for the most value.

The barometer - measured on criminal court actions in Australia which exceed $100,000 - found management fraud amounted to a total value of $106 million, while organised crime was nearly half that, at $57 million.

KPMG forensics director Rod McKemmish told The Australian that the majority of management fraud was committed by executives who had privileged access to company IT systems.

"If you think of the manager and their role, they tend to have a lot more authority, so they have a greater opportunity to manipulate the systems," he said.

"A lot of process and control is driven to the lower end of the organisation, so it's weaknesses in those processes and controls that allow this to happen and these people are in positions where they can authorise and allow things to happen a lot more easily (than junior employees)."