Times Of Swaziland: SwaziBank fires its manager

SwaziBank fires its manager
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 MDUDUZI MAGAGULA on 11/10/2009 00:00:00


MBABANE—The SwaziBank has fired the Deputy President of SUFIAW, Patrick
Ngwenya.
He had been charged with fraud and dishonesty, gross violation of procedures and
gross neglect of duty.
The bank claimed that there is an amount of E60 000 which disappeared in
Ngwenya’s hands and the bank did not take kindly to this.
Ngwenya has challenged the bank, accusing it of unfair dismissal.
Unfairly
He claims he was dismissed unfairly because during the period when the
transactions in question were allegedly made, he was not at work and as such he
should not be held responsible for the unaccounted for money.
He then pledged his innocence.
However, this was disputed by the bank and it brought evidence that contradicted
his claim.
When this incident happened, Ngwenya was a manager responsible for ATMs in the
bank.
Fraud
Other charges of fraud and dishonesty  were that he allegedly wrote a false
report that himself  and a Charles Dlamini went to exchange E100 000 from the
Mbabane Commercial branch and that the latter, Busi Zondo and Canaan Mavuso had
handed the same amount to them.
The bank claimed that such was a lie because the deputy president had been given
E150 000 instead of E100 000 for this purpose, thus the bank alleges Ngwenya
failed to account for a E50 000 shortfall.
The bank said Ngwenya denied knowledge of the money they were tasked to
exchange, yet himself and Dlamini were co-custodians of this cash.
The bank further claimed that, “on the May 21, 2008 you concealed and caused
to be concealed and allowed the concealment of the specification bank record,
being a bank record that you had used to requisition cash from the vault
custodian Charles Dlamini to the prejudice of the bank.”
“On May 21, Charles Dlamini, the vault custodian, allegedly gave you E210 000
and you deposited E200 000 to the Gwamile ATMs.
Transaction
“During the transaction, E10 000 was not deposited although it was posted as
having been deposited into the Swazi Plaza ATM.”
The bank alleged that Ngwenya caused the E100 000 to be lost because all the
money was in his custody.
The bank also alleged that Ngwenya had submitted half truths when he claimed
that he left the office at noon when he left at 4:15pm.
He risked bank money—Bank
MBABANE—Patrick Ngwenya was also accused with risking with bank money when he
carried it to another bank without any form of security.
He was subsequently charged for gross violation of procedure in that he did not
follow the bank procedure on transfer of cash from one branch to another in line
with the teller manual procedure.
The bank said such procedure stipulates that under no circumstances should cash
be moved without security. The bank alleged that Ngwenya took money without any
security and also did not inform anyone that he was moving the money.
“All cash movements must be advised to Head Office Finance and Operation. The
services of an armed guard or recognised security company must be used, where
security is unavailable advise Head Office Operations Office.”
On May 21, 2008 Ngwenya was alleged to have failed to observe cash
requisitioning procedures that when two branches are involved you inform either
your immediate manager or head office finance or the senior manager banking
operations.
The bank had also alleged that on May 21, 2008, Ngwenya requisitioned and
received cash from the vault custodian, Charles Dlamini, but ‘you did not sign
for the cash you received’.
Under gross neglect of duty, the bank alleged that as an ATM supervisor, he
contravened procedure and allowed or condoned non-execution of cash balancing
procedures. In all these charges, Ngwenya had pleaded not guilty.
He was found guilty and subsequently dismissed. Ngwenya has appealed the matter
with CMAC and a certificate of unresolved dispute was issued.
In an interview with this newspaper, Ngwenya said he believed his dismissal was
unfair and as such he would be taking the matter with the Industrial Court soon.