SA economic crime hits record levels

SOUTH African organisations continue to report the highest instances of economic crime in the world, with the scourge reaching its highest level over the past decade, accounting firm PwC said in its biennial Global Economic Crime Survey.

PwC said South Africa’s rate of reported economic crime, at 77%, was significantly higher than the global average rate of 49%, with Kenya coming second at 75%, while France was third at 71%.

Asset misappropriation remained the most prevalent form of economic crime, reported by 45% of respondents globally and 49% of South African respondents, the report said. One of the new categories of economic crime was “fraud committed by the consumer”, which was the second most reported crime in South Africa at 42% and was third placed globally at 29%. The survey examined over 7 200 respondents from 123 countries, 282 of them from South Africa.

“Economic crime continues to disrupt business, with this year’s results showing a steep incline in reported instances of economic crime,” said Trevor White, a partner at PwC.

PwC said although instances of reported cybercrime showed a small decrease in South Africa – 29% this year versus 32% – it retained its second place in the global rankings. Accounting fraud, usually perpetrated by senior management and resulting in the largest losses, increased from 20% to 22%. Another form of economic crime in SA was procurement fraud, indicating that the entire supply chain was fraught with criminality. – African News Agency (ANA)