Safaricom sacks 33 workers over theft and bribery

What you need to know:

Safaricom said it detected cases of economic crime, including accounting fraud, asset misappropriation and bribery in the past year, which led to the sacking and prosecution of 28 workers.
Safaricom sent home 70 employees while 16 workers were prosecuted the previous year, a signal that its efforts to combat fraud were beginning to bear fruits.
Bob Collymore, the CEO of Safaricom, reckons that the report is about transparency and the quest to boost the firm’s internal processes and engagement with its stakeholders like suppliers and business partners.

Safaricom has sacked 33 employees in the past one year over fraud, action that highlights rising cases of economic crime in corporate Kenya.

The mobile telecoms company said it detected cases of economic crime, including accounting fraud, asset misappropriation and bribery in the past year, which led to the sacking and prosecution of 28 workers.

Safaricom sent home 70 employees while 16 workers were prosecuted the previous year, a signal that its efforts to combat fraud were beginning to bear fruits.

READ: Safaricom sacks 70 workers over theft and bribery

The fraudulent dealings are contained in Safaricom’s just-released sustainability report, which highlights the firm’s economic, environmental, social and governance performance.

Safaricom becomes one of the few companies in corporate Kenya to unveil its fraud statistics in a market where firms, according PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), prefer to remain silent over economic crimes fearing a public relations backlash and brand damage.

Bob Collymore, the CEO of Safaricom, reckons that the report is about transparency and the quest to boost the firm’s internal processes and engagement with its stakeholders like suppliers and business partners.

“The report signifies that we are tough on internal corruption and fraud,” said Mr Collymore. “We are committed to ensuring that ethics and integrity underpin day-to-day business practices at Safaricom. We have constituted an ethics committee to inform and drive this agenda.”

Fraudulent cases

The firm earlier said that a significant number of the fraudulent cases involved collusion and bribery between its workers and agents.

Last year, Safaricom was locked in a court battle where it lost nearly Sh100 million in a fraudulent banking scheme hatched and executed by its agents.

It sued 13 former agents for obtaining goods worth millions using banking slips that were later found to have been forged.

The reluctance by most companies to sue or dismiss employees who have committed fraud for fear of reputation loss is also behind the rise in theft at the workplace, says PwC, adding that the extent of fraud can be appreciated more when the non-financial implications are considered, including loss of customers, business reputation, and low employee morale.

In Kenya, prosecution and sacking of workers because of fraud has mainly involved public servants and those employed by state-owned companies.

The consultancy firm said in its global survey last year that Kenya recorded the highest level of economic crime among 78 countries last year with procurement fraud and the theft of assets and money at work rising.

READ: Kenya ranked top in world's fraud incidences

The survey said 66 per cent of 91 Kenyan companies -- including 28 that are listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) -- have reported fraud up from 57 per cent in 2011 -- exposing shareholders to the loss of hundreds of millions of shillings.

About 70 per cent of the Kenyan respondents said fraud set them back Sh10 million, 25 per cent lost between Sh10 million and Sh500 million while three per cent of the respondents say they lost more than half a billion shillings.

Kenya ranked second-highest after South Africa in 2009 when the last survey on economic crimes was conducted by the firm.