Low wages source of economic crime

Accra, July 25, GNA - Low wages for most workers and the lack of effective legal deterrents have been identified as major sources of economic crime in Ghana, the PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) said on Friday.

The financial consulting giant also noted lack of adequate resources by national governments to combat fraud and the view that corruption or frauds were victimless crimes, as one of the root causes of economic crime.

These were contained in a nationwide survey by PWC on the hidden cost of doing business in Ghana.

Respondents were randomly selected from a list of Ghana's top organisations representing the various sectors of the economy. Mr Felix Addo, a Senior Partner at PWC, commenting on the survey told the Ghana News Agency on Friday that the abuse of power most often was for personal gain or for the benefit of a group to which one owed allegiance.

Mr Addo, a Leader in Forensic Investigation in Ghana, argued that corruption did really matter to the extent that it had many names and was generic.

He said more than half of the survey's 61 respondents (57 per cent) had been victim of some form of economic crime within the last two years.

"In our sample, the estimates ranged from less than 1,000 dollars to more than 10 million dollars, with an average per affected organisation of around 800,000 dollars. The true cost is likely to be higher," he said. Mr Charles Eghan, Country Leader of PWC, said the survey indicated that fraud usually extended beyond the few who committed it. "It extends beyond the company that is damaged and the investors, whose savings are devastated," adding that fraud touched every public company, every government organization and every investor in that it created a shadow of doubt and uncertainty. Giving reasons as to why corruption was endemic in the Ghanaian society, the survey first mentioned the African extended family, which placed severe pressure on public servants to engage in corruption and nepotism. It noted that many see public service as an opportunity for self-enrichment to the extent that there was a diffusion of sense of national interest or commitment to public service." The fact that skilled workers were not recruited based on merit, but on ethnic or other considerations and as reward for political support was another factor for corruption in the country. The emergence of the African military as an important force in the allocation of resources where they received a disproportionate share of public resources was noted as one major cause of crime on the Continent.