By Monique Hepburn, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
FRAUDULENT CHEQUES, drawn against the account of the government's Hurricane Relief Fund, have prompted officials at the Ministry of Finance to launch a full-scale investigation into the matter.
The Gleaner has learnt that at least four cheques surfaced at the National Commercial Bank's Portmore branch where the holders managed to get value. The bank has since alerted the Finance Ministry, which has responsibility for producing the cheques as well as the management of the account.
PROBE UNDER WAY
The fund, which was established in October 2004, was set up to assist the victims of Hurricane Ivan that ravaged sections of the island last September. Cheques from the fund range in amounts with the highest being $20,000.
"We are currently doing an investigation since we were advised of the situation on Monday," said Berome Edwards, director of financial systems at the Ministry of Finance.
"The fund is an ongoing one and when we put money in there, we do vouchers and so the balance may fluctuate from time to time."
At press time, the ministry was not yet in possession of the cheques and was making arrangements with the bank to retrieve them.
According to Mr. Edwards, preliminary findings have revealed that the security breach does not originate in the ministry, explaining that persons have managed to duplicate authentic cheques and pass them off.
COPIES
"The cheques were not taken from our stock but are copies. They were tendered (and they) got value for them," he said.
Sheree Martin, Assistant
general manager for corporate communications at NCB told The Gleaner yesterday that the appropriate action has been taken to notify their internal network as well.
"The cheques are issued by the Ministry of Finance and can be cashed at any branch of the National Commercial Bank," she pointed out. "We have since issued our concerns internally throughout our system as certain characteristics of the cheques were not in keeping with those of the security features of authentic cheques."
