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Over $20,000 swiped from Belize Postal Service

HeadlineOver $20,000 swiped from Belize Postal Service

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. May 28, 2015–Deputy Post Master General, James Gabriel, today confirmed to Amandala that an internal inquiry is indicating that the Belize Postal Service has been fleeced out of over $20,000, allegedly by an employee who has since absconded the country.

According to Gabriel, the scheme came to light last Tuesday, May 20, when a supervisor at the Express Mail section got a hint that something was awry concerning the accounts, and upon investigation, came across several suspicious transactions which were allegedly conducted by an Express Mail Service (EMS) cashier who had been employed at the Post Office for the past three years.

The transactions reportedly involved a number of deposits that were supposed to have been made to the main cashier at the end of workdays, but were instead siphoned off and pocketed, allegedly by the cashier.

An internal inquiry was immediately launched into the serial misappropriation of funds, and Gabriel explained that further checks which were made revealed that the cashier had reportedly embezzled a total of $21,251 in revenue that was collected between January 2 and May 19, 2015.

As a result, we understand that the Belize Post Office administration has initiated a rigorous internal audit of their accounts, since it is believed that the scheme may have been occurring even before the start of this year.

We were told that the cashier sent in a resignation letter sometime last week and then suddenly flew out of the country five days ago, on Friday, May 22.

The matter has since been reported to police, and today, we contacted Officer Commanding Precinct 3, Superintendent Suzette Anderson, who confirmed that the matter is presently being investigated, but would not get into details so as not to compromise the investigation.

In the meantime, arrangements have been made with the Ministry of Works and Transport, under which the Postal Service falls, as well as the Audit Department, in order for a comprehensive inspection to be carried out.

We were told that no timeline has been set for the completion of that audit because the auditors will have to review two years of records to get to the bottom of the embezzlement, since the cashier had been working at that post for the last two years.

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