ANTI-white collar crime practitioners have urged government to review laws and create deterrent counter-strategies against criminals following a sharp increase in such crime.
Addressing the 6th White Collar Crime Summit for Africa 2022 in Victoria Falls, White-Collar Crime Bureau Board chairperson Cloudius Garwi said criminals have become sophisticated.
“Criminals have taken a gear up by sharpening their daggers as they have penetrated the cyber space to perpetrate crime such as fraud, corruption, cyber-crime, money laundering, terrorism financing and kleptocracy. These criminals have become so sophisticated that the law enforcement agencies, business, and individuals are always lagging behind in techniques and execution,” Garwi said.
“As white-collar crime practitioners, we call upon government’s law enforcement agencies, business sector and individuals to put their shoulders behind the wheel and fight this criminal scourge in our midst for us to have a criminal free environment where business and individuals can trade without fear in support with the government’s economic blueprint National Development Strategy (NDS) 1,” Garwi said.
“White collar crime knows no boundary and the most vulnerable and targeted groups are corporates, individuals, quasi-government 2 institutions, and even government departments are not spared. For us to win this war, we call upon all stakeholders to put their heads together and create counter-strategies against these criminals.”
In an unrelated matter, Finance minister Mthuli Ncube yesterday accused some companies of withholding data and other information from the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat).
In a speech read on his behalf by ZimStat chairperson Naomi Wekwete during ZimStat Africa Statistics Day 2022 celebrations held in Bulawayo yesterday, Ncube said government ends up without critical data.
“The result is that the same sectors that are failing to contribute data end up operating without specific data to inform their decision making,” Ncube said.
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