Economic crime is flourishing in the global downturn - more than 60% of South African businesses involved

SHOOT: Ordinary South Africans have a perception that criminals are poor and their methods fairly unsophisticated. My perception is that crime is fairly universal. In other words, almost everyone is a perpetrator because in South Africa there is a culture of dishonesty.

clipped from www.fin24.com Financial-statement fraud has risen worldwide in the past four years. However, in South Africa it had declined from 45% in 2005 to 39% in 2009. A total 82% of the South African respondents who experienced economic crime suffered theft of assets, compared with 67% worldwide. According to the survey the profile of the financial criminal is changing. Most are still in-house. Middle managers are now committing 29% of all such crimes in South Africa, compared with 22% in 2007. Junior staff members remain the biggest offenders and in the 12 months were responsible for 50% of all local incidents. Bribery and fraud were uncovered at 59% of the firms, but at only 27% globally. Although the share prices of only 10% of South African enterprises reporting economic crime were affected by such misconduct, 33% indicated that staff morale had been negatively impacted by it.