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. 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 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.
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