This is the pits. We already have electoral fraud which will not go amiss in a banana republic, we already have bank runs which are common in banana republics and now we have corruption levels which will not disgrace a banana republic.
I quote some very distressing points.
The UK economy could be losing 3-4% of GDP per year because of fraud.
48% of UK corporations suffered from some form of economic crime at some point in the past two years compared with 43% globally and 38% in western Europe
The average cost to each UK corporation as a result of such crime is £1.75m over two years, compared with £800,000 in 2005.
Asset misappropriation, normally carried out by junior employees, continues to be the most widely reported economic crime in Britain, followed by accounting fraud, intellectual property infringement and corruption and bribery (perpetrated by both junior and high-level workers). The public sector and engineering and construction are the industries in which the most lucrative bribes are to be found.
But despite the prevalence of fraud and the higher profile of penalties, nearly 50% of UK respondents said the implementation of the Fraud Act 2006 did not encourage them to report fraud, a fact Mr Parton attributes to several "not wanting to wash their dirty laundry in public".
Read the full report here and weep. When will our government take further action on making sure that these culprits are brought to book quickly, cleanly, openly and with no compromises?
All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!
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