Global companies are planning to nearly double their spending on governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) over the next eighteen month, but could be throwing their investments into a “multi-billion dollar black hole” because they lack focus, according to a survey from Ernst & Young.

The firm said two-thirds of the global companies in its survey wanted to invest more in GRC, but around half of them said they found GRC hard to implement, mainly because they weren’t sure what model to adopt.

E&Y risk specialist Paul Kennard said companies were spending on risk management as a knee-jerk reaction to scandals and wrong-doing, which led to a haphazard approach.

“Businesses need to recognize that reinvention of their risk approach cannot be achieved with incremental improvements,” said Kennard. “Risk expenditure needs to be treated as a strategic investment or business enabler.”

The survey also found that external stakeholders are often more concerned by the quality of GRC practice than companies’ own management. “Stakeholder relations could become very fraught if this is ignored and they are not suitably reassured about the robustness of the risk function,” Kennard said.