Banks keep mum over indicted staffers

FELIX OLOYEDE

The managements of banks, whose members of staff were fingered to have been allegedly involved in the N8 billion currency scam that rocked the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), have decided to keep sealed-lips on the issue.

When Hallmark contacted the Corporate Communication Managers of most of the affected banks, they were reluctant to respond to questions raised on their members of staff indictment on the scandal.

Meanwhile, experts have argued that the scam is an indication of a complete collapse of internal control in the country’s financial industry, which gives bank employees room to easily carry out fraud.

The CBN had at the weekend announced that it has handled over six of its employees to the Economic Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) for recycling mutilated higher denominations of nation’s currency, amounting to about N8 billion which they were meant to destroyed.

The Director, Corporate Communications, Mr. Ibrahim Mu’azu on Monday in release explained that they were caught during a routine check in September, last year.

“At a routine internal audit of the bank’s Cash Destruction activities in September 2014, the CBN Briquetting panel comprising senior bank staff from different branches noticed some anomalies at the Ibadan branch, and immediately reported it the bank’s management,” he said.

About 16 Staffers of eight commercial banks were fingered to have collaborated with the CBN workers in  perpetrating the scam.

The banks involved were Zenith Bank, FCMB, Wema Bank and Access Bank. Other banks whose members of staff were indicted in the fraud were First Bank, Skye Bank, Ecobank and Sterling Banks.

Mr. Louis Ibe of FCMB told Hallmark that he was not aware of the indictment of the bank’s employees in the CBN currency scam, saying he would find out and get back to our Correspondent, which he has not done as of the time of going to press.

The spokesmen of Skye Bank, Sterling Bank, Zenith Bank and Ecobank also promised to consult with their superiors on the issue and relay their banks’ positions on their employees that were named in the CBN currency scam, which was not done before the newspaper went to bed.

An Economist with the Lincoln University, California,USA, Dr. Richard Mayungbe in an exclusive interview with Hallmark opined that the CBN N8 billion currency fraud was an indication of breakdown of internal control in the country’s financial sector.

“When you give too much power to a single person, this is the result you get,” he reasoned.

To the President, Bank Customers Association of Nigeria (BCAN) and former registrar, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Dr. Uju Ogbunka, the scandal shows that most banks in the country lack effective internal control, which is difficult to break through.

He faulted the CBN for not properly educating its members of staff that engage in the destruction of mutilated currency, saying if they had been properly educated they may not have dabble into this fraudulent act.

“Nobody expected that this would happen from CBN quarters. That is a picture of what is happening in the country’s general polity and economy, which is unfortunate. That is why many have been calling for a general change of orientation,” he noted.

The former CIBN registrar asserted that those found culpable in the scam should be brought to the ethics committee of the bankers institute, where they would be prosecuted if found to have ran foul of the institute’s ethics, which every member of staff of Nigerian banks subscribe to, including those in CBN, they would be ban from engaging in any banking activities.

It would be recalled the EFCC on Tuesday arraigned six CBN employees and two staffers of Sterling Bank that were fingered in the N8 billion currency scam, before an Ibadan Federal High Court.

They were consequently remanded at the Agodi Prison by the presiding judge, Justice Ayo Emmanuel, who adjourned the case to July 6 and July 7, 2015.

The CBN staffers arraigned were Patience Okoro Eye, Afolabi Johnson, Ilori Sunday,

Kolawole Babalola, Olaniran Adeeola and Fatai Yusuf.