UNIFREIGHT Africa Limited is tightening its financial control systems in the wake of two of their senior employees being hauled to the courts on charges of defrauding Hatfield Girls High School of $66 200 in a bus procurement deal.
BY STAFF REPORTER
The tightening of systems followed an internal audit report by the company after the fraudulent bus deal. Group audit, risk and projects executive, one L Bamala, in the report to the group chief executive, recommended extensive changes to their financial systems and media relations to curtail the reputational damage of the company from the incident.
“Unifreight Africa needs to seek legal advice on the claim from the school and should prepare a reputational risk management programme through the media,” recommended Bamala.
“Refund amounts should be returned to the original source of funds and there should be a formalised system of payment other than one of trust and dependent on individual trust.”
The changes were ringed as technical director Stephen Hockey and sales executive Jonathan Fennel were last week remanded out of custody on $200 bail each for allegedly working in cahoots with the school’s development committee members to defraud the school of $66 200 through inflation of the bus price and sharing the loot after getting a refund.
The refund was deposited into a personal account of a committee member instead of the school’s account.
