In Summary
The number of employees suspected of crime rose despite the drop by two thirds in the total number of financial crimes committed by employees during the same period.
Safaricom, which is East Africa’s largest company by asset base, also gave disciplinary warnings to 13 employees.
The firm last year cemented its anti-corruption stand with the termination of a multi-million dollar tender it had awarded the Lebanese company Mobinets SAL, citing bribery of its staff in the allocation of the contract.
Telecoms operator Safaricom sacked 58 employees suspected of involvement in fraudulent activities in the year ended March, two more than the 56 it sent home the previous year.
The number of employees suspected of crime rose despite the drop by two thirds in the total number of financial crimes committed by employees during the same period.
Safaricom, which is Kenya’s most profitable company, said it investigated 29 fraud cases in the year under review down from 89 the previous year and forwarded four to the police for public prosecution. The cases covered various types of frauds, including asset misappropriation, fraudulent expense claims and corruption cases.
“Disciplinary action was taken against all staff involved in misconduct and some cases were forwarded to the law enforcement authorities, leading to prosecution,” the telecoms firm said in its annual report.
This means that for every fraudulent incident the company fired two people compared to the previous year when the ratio was less than one firing for each fraudulent activity.
The new trend points to rising collusion among employees to commit crime in a tighter working environment that needs networking to commit a crime.
Safaricom, which is East Africa’s largest company by asset base, also gave disciplinary warnings to 13 employees.
The telecoms giant last year cemented its anti-corruption stand with the termination of a multi-million dollar tender it had awarded the Lebanese company Mobinets SAL, citing bribery of its staff in the allocation of the contract.
Mobinets had been contracted to supply, install and maintain a system to manage network planning, configuration tools, inventory and work flow but lost it after it was accused of colluding with Safaricom employees to win the tender.
Safaricom requires all its employees to undergo ethics training at least once a year, focusing on anti-corruption and bribery initiatives. The company has in the past three years consistently reported employee fraud and actions taken, with last year’s dismissals taking the total to 169 employees in three years, 39 of which were forwarded to the police for criminal prosecution.
Other institutions such as KCB have followed suit with consistent reporting of fraud and actions taken against employees involved. KCB last year reported that it had sacked about 90 employees suspected of engaging fraudulent activities in the 2013-2014 financial year.
Early this year, CIC Insurance reported that it had dismissed eight managers suspected of involvement in fraudulent activities.
Source: Business Daily
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