SERVICE STORY: My LIC days!
by PG.POOCHERY
.
Let me recall the incident now.
A life insurance company lost money running to several lakhs. A simple game of preparing fresh cheques for insurance policies once settled was the modus operandi used by an employee.
The policy had been once settled and policyholder had received amounts due to him. When a second payment was generated from the same file and this cheque was encashed, the employee concerned did not anticipate any problem. His ingenuity, office experience and knowledge of procedures must have enabled him to employ this unique method.
.
The employee concerned was however finally caught red handed. It was then found out that two direct recruit class one lady officers were in the lime light.
Of the two, one lady was the manager in charge of the department. She failed to act despite the fact that she had enough warning that a number of "party waiting" cheques were lying unattended. The other lady was the administrative officer responsible for the erring employee being caught.
.
The administrative officer was making usual follow up of cheques not encashed within the validity period of three months. She wrote to the party the usual letter why the cheque issued to him was not being encashed.
This was a case in which party had already received due payments. By fraudulent means a fresh cheque was generated from the same file and this cheque was presented for payment. Bankers refused to honour the second cheque as they suspected some foul play.
.
Since a heavy amount was involved, proper follow up was necessary on the part of the office. Otherwise it would be difficult to convince auditors the reasons for the cheque not being encashed. The employee concerned who had committed the fraud knew that there would be continuous follow up and even an attempt to contact the party if the cheque was not encashed. Once the party was contacted, all details like receipt of one payment already would come to be known. For this reason, it was important that the file should be closed.
.
The difficulty was that the file could be closed only when the payment was made. So the concerned employee committing fraud tried to intercept correspondence to the party. A letter was replied forging party's signatures. And this letter purportedly authorised an agent to receive payment on his behalf.
It is here the administrative officer caught the fraudster.
.
When even this attempt failed, the culprit contacted the officer direct over her phone in an attempt to get the cheque, so that a second attempt to encash the cheque could be made so as to close the matter.
.
The amount was not at all important to the fraudster since he had already amassed a fortune. Since he knew the office procedure, he was trying to get the cheque, encash it and finally close the issue. If the cheque was not encashed, he knew that the office would be obliged to take further action till the amount was paid to the party.
Relevance of administrative officer became absolutely imperative here. If she had chosen to prepare another cheque, handover the same to the agent as desired and if finally the erring employee had succeeded in encashing the cheque, this fraud wouldn't have seen the light of the day.
The whole credit therefore goes to this young lady for unearthing the fraud.
.
SERVICES RECOGNISED !
I was an administratiave officer in this department for a brief period of less than one year.
There was no departmental enquiry to find out how it was possible for an employee to commit such a fraud.
Therefore I wrote to the division head showing my willingness to submit a report on this matter if the office gave me a nod, "orally or in writing".
I was anticipating a positive response from the division head.
And the response did come to me in the form of a transfer order transferring me to the policy servicing department!
.
Tail piece: -
At the end of the financial year, the manager concerned received promotion orders.
Division head got a transfer as per his request.
Both of them left the division.
One day, personal assistant to the division head called me to inform that a letter I had given to the division head asking for permission to submit the report was lying there and I could take it away!
*** ** *
New Windows 7: Find the right PC for you. Learn more.
No comments:
Post a Comment