Nigeria’s National Orientation Minister, Frank Nweke Jnr, has criticised Swiss banks for accommodating looted public funds from Nigeria and...

Nigeria’s National Orientation Minister, Frank Nweke Jnr, has criticised Swiss banks for accommodating looted public funds from Nigeria and other countries at the launch of the KPMG Africa fraud and misconduct survey 2005. The survey investigated 386 companies in 13 African countries, including Nigeria, showed that fraud is still a major problem in both public and private sectors, and that the tempo is set to increase. The minister acknowledged that Nigeria has problem with fraud, but said: “Nobody is talking about Swiss Banks which harbour money stolen from the country. I think they are more corrupt than Nigerians because if they are not collecting, people will stop depositing stolen moneys there and this will reduce fraud,” according to local reports. He said that no country is free of con men and claimed that his country has zero tolerance for corruption, and is working hard to see to it that fraud is reduced to the barest minimum. The KPMG survey shows that collusion between employees and third parties accounted for 73 per cent of fraud, poor internal controls 42 per cent, and management override of internal controls accounted for 15 per cent according to the Director for Forensic Services at KPMG in South Africa, Kevin West.