Kenya, SA have ‘highest levels of economic crime’

BY AGENCIES

KENYA and SA recorded the highest levels of economic crime among 78 countries in the past year, with the theft of assets and money in businesses and government agencies on the rise, a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) shows.

In Kenya, which topped the list with SA second, corruption is "endemic". Corruption in the countries included bribery, accounting fraud and money laundering, says the consultancy firm’s Global Economic Crime Survey, released this week.

Attempts to stop corruption are failing. In Kenya, the incidence of economic crime of 66% was almost twice the list’s average of 34%. Also on the list were Britain, New Zealand and Spain, which had similar levels of fraud to Australia. Kenya ranked second-highest after SA in 2009 when the last survey on economic crimes was conducted.

Japan had the least economic crime, followed by Indonesia, Slovenia and Greece, the survey which included responses from privately owned, listed and government agencies, showed.

"Economic crime is on the rise globally, but is accelerating in Kenya," said Martin Whitehead, a partner at PwC and head of its forensic services unit.

Mr Whitehead said economic crime was expanding because many Kenyan organisations had a cavalier attitude towards the problem and do not report the crimes to the police, while others cited a lack of confidence in the judicial process.

Most white collar perpetrators were males between 30 and 40 years old who had at least a university degree and usually had worked for about 5 years in the company they were defrauding, Mr Whitehead said. "Although some companies are getting tougher, an awful lot are not. Some say it is of no use to report to the police or take civil action. It is a long process, nothing will be done," he said.

More than a third of businesses and other organisations around the world were victims of economic crime in the past 12 months, according to respondents. Nearly a quarter of victims said they were subject to cybercrime - the use of technology as the main element in economic crime. Overall, 34% of respondents said their organisations were victims of economic crime, a 13% increase since 2009.

"Globally, Africa is seen as one of the main sources of cybercrime threats," Whitehead said.