$8M fraud uncovered at sugar fund
- after employee disappears
Stabroek News
June 1, 2004
An employee who called in sick and then disappeared triggered alarm bells at the Sugar Industry Labour Welfare Fund Committee (SILWFC), where an $8M fraud was since discovered.
Chairman of the SILWFC Board of Directors, Mohammed Akeel confirmed yesterday that the investigation is still ongoing, but he admitted that preliminary findings have determined that almost $8M had been misappropriated some time at the end of last year.
But while the Auditor General's Office works to complete its investigations there are also reports that the prime suspect in the case has left the country.
According to Akeel, the investigation was initiated earlier in the year because of the suspicious actions of an accountant, who one day reported ill and never returned to work.
Akeel explained that what fuelled the suspicion was the timing of the man's actions, which came immediately after SILWFC had terminated another employee for unrelated reasons.
"The secretary/manager was terminated. It did not have anything to do with this. Following that, the accountant resigned. Immediately after, he reported sick and did not come back. He suddenly departed and we got suspicious," Akeel said yesterday.
He says the SILWFC has not heard from the accountant since, but he has received reports that the man may have migrated.
The Auditor General's Office submitted an interim report that found that so far a sum in the vicinity of $8M was unaccounted for, but this is pending the final determination.
The preliminary report also recommends that the police be summoned to join the investigation, but this has not yet been done.
Akeel said the committee did not want to act pre-emptively, since it may have alerted potential suspects. He added that the report alone is insufficient to warrant police involvement, hence SILWFC's decision to await the Auditor General's final report.