Greed and selfishness go beyond the minimum needs of survival, in some cases, there are many greedy people who in full knowledge of what they are doing steal money for their own benefit.
I have seen how a co-worker in a bank stole money from deposits received by customers in the day.
My task in that bank agency, located in a very popular wholesale market in Caracas, was to attend to the public with respect to any problem that arose with any financial product, I guarded the checkbooks and traveler's checks, and I also supervised the promoters of products and services.
The manager of this agency rarely went and left the assistant manager of this office in charge, who supervised me and the tellers. I was not very comfortable in this agency because I noticed that many times my coworkers skipped what was established in the Policies and Procedures Manual.
The daily cash closings always had differences and these were posted in an auxiliary account that served as a complement to the daily balance of the office. The cashiers always bragged about their dress, their trips, expensive watches and their winnings betting at the Hippodrome.
The agency, due to its location, was open on Saturdays. On that particular day I had to support the assistant manager of the office, and I inadvertently observed the main teller taking money from the vault.
Magically, this main teller said goodbye to everyone along with the assistant tellers, but not before presenting the vault balance to the Assistant Manager. I asked this individual where everyone was going, and he replied that to the Hippodrome to bet on the horses.
The Assistant Manager of the Agency was my immediate Supervisor, and logically I should report to him what I saw, and I also told him that it seemed strange to me that all the tellers were going to bet on the horses that Saturday.
This Assistant Manager underestimated my complaint and told me that I was a liar, I calmed down and waited until Monday where I raised the whole situation to the Manager, which I rarely saw in his position.
The person in charge of the Agency did not believe me either, and that is where my alarm bells began to ring the loudest. I politely said goodbye, and immediately went to the Bank's headquarters where I got an audience with the Zone Vice-President, raised the situation and was moved to another Bank Agency that same Monday.
On Tuesday morning, a commission from the Internal Audit Department arrived at the Agency where I denounced the irregularity, they waited for the Deputy Manager to open the Agency and for the tellers to arrive, all the personnel arrived but the Main Teller was missing.
Immediately, the main vault was opened and the cash count of the previous day's bills in custody was requested.
The Auditors requested to see how the daily cash count was done, the Assistant Manager together with the available cashiers counted the sealed packages and depending on the number of packages reported the total amount of cash for the day.
This procedure violated internal regulations, since the logical thing to do was to pass the packages through bill counting machines to ensure the veracity of the amount reported. In view of this, the auditors proceeded to remove the seals from the bills in order to pass them through the counting machine.
The surprise was not long in coming, it was observed that many packages had 98 blank papers the size of the bills, being really only paper money the first and the last bill.
Immediately the bank agency was closed in order to be able to do a proper search of the vault and a very large amount of millions of Bolivars was detected.
In view of the nervousness that prevailed in the Agency, one of the cashiers said that they went to the racetrack to bet on the horses on Saturdays and Sundays, and with the profits obtained they covered the missing amount in the vault on Monday morning.
In particular, that weekend the bets did not work, but they did not worry about that, since the bills were counted by package, and not by unit in a machine, that way they always fooled the Assistant Manager. The main teller was the ringleader of this scam, and the other tellers were accomplices, here we can also see the ineptitude of the Deputy Manager of the Agency, by not following the proper steps and procedures to supervise the personnel under his charge.
This fraud was committed in internal complicity, and was discovered thanks to my complaint to the Area Vice-Presidency. The consequences were serious, being sanctioned all the cashiers, the Manager, the Assistant Manager and the Accountant of the Agency, I am talking about eight people removed from their positions, liquidated without receiving any penny, and one denounced before the justice, the main cashier, since he fled the country.
If I directly confronted the main cashier it was like facing 5 people, so I feared for my personal integrity, if I remained silent I was going against my moral principles, ethics and the values that I was taught at home. In addition, I felt a strong commitment to the institution that offered me security, support, and the facility to meet my needs in an honest manner at that time.
I still can't understand why there are many people who needlessly give in to the temptation of robbery, harming themselves and the institutions or people affected.
This is my participation in the initiative Writing Topics for the Weekend: WEEK 153 Link Here promoted by @galenkp.
Confront, report or ignore.
You witness someone at your workplace stealing money from the company you both work for. What do you do? Confront them, report them to the boss or remain silent? Explain your choice and the ramifications that could come from it. Write 300+ words using images you photographed personally where possible.
Happy weekend everyone, I hope to read your publications, to inspire me and get a lot out of your stories. I would greatly appreciate your comments, best regards.