A
global audit and financial advisory firm, KPMG, has rated Nigeria as
the most fraudulent country in Africa. The rating is coming on the heels
of President Goodluck Jonathan’s claim that his administration has done
better than previous ones in the fight against corruption.
According to KPMG, Nigeria accounted for the highest number of fraud
cases on the continent in the first half of 2012. The cost of fraud in
the country during the period was put at N225 billion ($1.5 billion).
KPMG, in its second Africa Fraud Barometer result, released on
Wednesday, also said Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa accounted
for 74 per cent of all fraud cases in Africa in the same period.
The report stated that the number of fraud cases in Nigeria has been
worsened by fraud and corruption in the oil sector. It identified the
common forms of fraud in the country as “bribes in the private and
public sector, misappropriation, and contract inflation.” Government
officials and top management staff in private companies were described
as the worst offenders leaving companies shareholders and the general
public to bear the brunt of their profligacy. The report further blames
the long and tedious legal system in the country of doing next to
nothing in bringing perpetrators to book. “The general belief in Nigeria
is that the legal system is not effective enough,” said Olumide
Olayinka, Head of Risk Consulting of KPMG Nigeria.
“There have been a lot of cases involving the banking and the oil and
gas sectors or government that lead to prosecution. The current
noticeable trend is that many cases either end with a plea bargain or
are simply closed without any conviction,” he added. Data for the fraud
barometer are aggregated from news articles and reviewing fraud cases
from designated databases. Though the amount of fraud in the country is
grim, the report observes a decline in the cases of fraud from 520 in
the second half of 2011 to 503 cases in the first half of 2012 in the
continent. During the same period, the value of fraud decreased from
N495 billion (US$3.3 billion) to N300 billion (US$ 2 billion).
Jonathan had during the presidential media chat last Sunday said his
administration was pro-actively fighting and winning the war on
corruption. He said he believed had done better than his predecessors in
fighting corruption in the country.
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