Safaricom sacks 31 employees linked to fraud

A Safaricom shop in Nairobi. FILE PHOTO | NMG 

By VICTOR JUMA
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Safaricom fired 31 employees in the year ended March 2019 after they were found to have engaged in fraud.

The telco says it sacked 43 workers because of fraud a year earlier/

The company is among the few Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed firms that discloses how they are dealing with scams perpetrated by their own employees.

The latest action taken on fraud is disclosed in the telco’s annual report.

Fraud is a major concern for Safaricom, the most profitable company in the country which transacts billions of shillings daily through various services including mobile money transfers.

“The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal control,” Safaricom says in the report.

In the review period, the company investigated a total of 43 fraud cases and issued two disciplinary warnings. It also reported 15 cases to law enforcement agencies.

Some employees of Safaricom have been accused of working in concert with outsiders to defraud the telco’s customers including by disclosing their account information.

The telco has a whistleblowing policy that “provides for an ethics hotline managed by an independent, accredited and external institution.”

Those encouraged to report include employees, suppliers, dealers and agents.

Safaricom says that it reviews each reported fraud case, whether it is material or not.

It says the hotline allows anonymous reports on unethical/fraudulent behaviour to be made without fear of retaliation from suspected individuals.