Chamber Of Commerce Worries Over Upsurge In Fraud

Accra - The Ghana National Chamber of Commerce (GNCC) has expressed alarm at the increasing spate of fraudulent deals and the current upsurge in "Kalabule" across the country.

It has also pledged its support to arrest the situation. As part of efforts to curb the current upsurge, the Chamber of Commerce has organised a day's seminar on business frauds in a free market environment at the Miklin Hotel, Accra.

In a speech read on his behalf, Mr. Ato Ampiah, President of the GNCC noted that the upsurge in criminal- related offences is on the rise. He noted that the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) last year uncovered many episodes of financial and economic frauds in public and private sector institutions, which resulted in the loss of over ?10 billion to Government.

He said, according to the SFO investigations, frauds uncovered included non-disclosure of contract proceeds, evasion of custom duties and taxes, misappropriation of funds and materials meant for projects, embezzlement, over-invoicing, fraudulent procurement procedures, and inflation of prices and abuse of customs exemptions.

Ato Ampiah said these discoveries by the SFO "are just a tip of the ice-berg of what is actually happening in our economy."

He added that apart from works of such institutions such as the SFO, the Judicial Service, the Police and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and Government have started initiating moves to eliminate business frauds in the country.

The Acting Executive Director of the SFO, Mr. Brian Anku Sapati, in his submission noted that lack of statistics make it difficult for corporate bodies in developing countries, such as Ghana, to quantify the amount lost due to corporate/business frauds.

He said in the United Kingdom, for instance, corporate fraud is estimated to cost between Pounds25-Pounds40 million per day. He advised organisations to appoint non-executive Directors as fraud managers to provide advice and judgement on fraud-related issues within organisations.

Mr. S. A. Zakariah, Area Head of Security and Investigation, West Africa Standard Chartered Bank, said the uniqueness of frauds perpetrated against banks is such that they are mainly revenue-based.

He cited counterfeit cheques, fraudulently-altered cheques among such crimes and called for appropriate policies to be effected to curb bank frauds, which have been on the increase in recent times.