Despite a decline in the number of fraud cases reported in Africa, the sums involved more than doubled during the transition from the first to the second half of 2012, audit, tax and advisory firm KPMG’s third Africa Fraud Barometer has revealed.

The report, released in April, found that, from July to December 2012, 348 cases of fraud were reported – a 155 decrease from the 503 cases reported during January to June last year.

However, the sums involved in the reported cases increased by $3.1-billion, from $2.4-billion in the first half to $5.5-billion during the period under review.

The barometer, which aimed to measure fraud on the African continent using all available news articles on Africa and statistics from designated databases, said three-quarters of all fraud cases in Africa were concentrated in Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

While South Africa topped the list as the country with the highest number of reported fraud cases, which increased by 1.46% from the first half of 2012, Nigeria, which recorded the second-highest number of fraud cases, accounted for the highest “value” of the fraud cases.

The “value” of the reported fraud cases in Nigeria, which jumped 50% compared with the first half of the year, reached over $3-billion during the six months to December 2012, despite the country registering a 1% decrease in the number of reported cases.

Zimbabwe achieved a decrease in the number of reported fraud cases, from 8% of the total of cases reported in the prior period to 6% in the period under review, while Namibia recorded a 4% increase, the KPMG barometer showed.

Kenya, recording a 2.88% rise in reported cases, emerged as having the most cases of reported fraud in East Africa.

In all other East African countries, including Ethiopia, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, the number of reported fraud cases decreased during the final six months of 2012.

Ghana, Sierra Leone and Liberia reported slight increases in fraud cases, while the Gambia achieved a decrease.

The report also showed that the most reported fraud type – general fraud and misrepresentation – increased from 37% in the first six months of 2012 to 45% in the second half of the year.

Misappropriation and theft, recorded at 14% of the total fraud cases in the period under review, was down from the 17% reported in the prior period, while the third-highest form of fraud, counterfeiting and forgery, fell 1% in the period from July to December, from the 14% of the total fraud cases reported in the period from January to June.

The government and public sector, which had the highest occurrence of reported fraud cases, showed a 5% decrease to 20% in the six months to December 2012.

An increased number of cases were reported in consumer markets, financial services and the oil and gas industries.

The report found that fraud by private-sector employees, at 22%, had overtaken government officials, at 14%, in terms of committing the most fraud. However, fraud cases perpetuated by management had declined from 11% in the first half of 2012 to 3% in the final six months of the year.