Fraud cases in Ghana have little impact on investment – KPMG
A new report by KPMG has revealed ‘seeming’ increases of fraud in both Ghana’s public and private sectors. But these perceived fraud have less impact on attracting investments, it says.
According to the findings of KPMG’s third Africa Fraud Barometer which was published in April 2013, reported cases of fraud in Ghana have increased.
The report which is published every six months, covered the period from July 1, 2012 to December 2012.
Mr Joseph Winful, Senior Partner at KPMG Ghana in the report said “Most cases have been misappropriation of public funds during the procurement and diversion of funds.”
Mr Winful further stated that “There seems to be a general increase of fraud in the public sector as well as the financial sector.”
According to him, private sector fraud occurs mostly in financial institutions perpetuated by employees in collaboration with clients.
However, Mr Winful said “We believe that fraud cases have little impact on investment though we are in the process of investigating this further.”
The barometer indicated that fraud cases in Ghana appear regularly in the print media and findings are also published in the Auditor General reports on public sector entities.
The fraud barometer showed that most of the reported cases relate to general fraud and misrepresentation at 45%, an increase of 7% from the previous reporting period.
It said most fraud is committed by employees (22%), replacing government officials (14%) previously topping the list.
“These results suggest that there is a high level of internal dishonesty. As in the previous reporting period, government remains hardest hit by fraud and corruption at 30%, a decrease of 8% from the previous reporting period,” KPMG noted.
According to the barometer, the occurrence of reported fraud in Africa has decreased from 503 in the first half of 2012 to 348 cases in the second half of 2012.
However, the value of fraud increased from $2 billion to $4 billion, it added.
About three quarters of all fraud cases in Africa are reported in Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa, the barometer noted.
Nigeria is still the country with the highest value of reported fraud cases with $3 billion, an increase of 50%, it says.
The KPMG Africa Fraud Barometer is an initiative that was launched in April 2012 and is aimed at measuring fraud on the African continent. It exposes the risk of fraud companies face in their day-to-day operations.
The Barometer distinguishes between the number of reported fraud cases, type of perpetrators, victims of fraud, type of fraud, countries and targeted industries.
By Ekow Quandzie