Money missing at SCASPA?

By James McCall

Further to that announcement, a news release stated that SCASPA’s management made a presentation to Cabinet delineating its plans and programs for the way forward.

These two objectives would have heralded what we thought was a breath of fresh air for the statutory body and raised hopes that it would conduct its affairs in a more professional and businesslike manner.

It was disheartening to have heard on the many radio talk shows and other reliable sources that a sum of money went missing about a week or so ago after it had been placed in a vault at the office at Bird Rock.

It can be expected that SCASPA, being the only controller of our ports of entry and with many of the items that people bring into St. Kitts being subject to one form of tax or another, would realise significant takings from time to time, if not on a regular basis. SCASPA is not necessarily an 8-to-4 operation; so, from time to time, its takings by the close of operations would have to be stored in a vault overnight then deposited in the bank the very next day. It was on one of those nights that the thief/thieves allegedly struck.

The information is that other employees saw when the money was placed into the vault and observed the vault being locked. By next day, however, the money had disappeared. It is reported that there was absolutely no evidence of breakage or damage to the vault. It can, therefore, be argued that the person or persons who entered the vault and removed the money had access to it.

The questions the public needs to know, therefore, are:
• Who had ultimate responsibility for the money?
• Who were the person(s) who had access to the vault?
• Did they collude with each other to take it or did one person act alone?
• If one person acted alone, how did he/she manage to do so?
• How do any suspects account for their activities over the time period between the placement of the money in the vault and when it was discovered missing the following morning?

Although government has forever stopped short of admitting that we are in dire economic straits, it is generally believed to be a matter of fact that we are. A national debt of approximately EC$3 billion has been the talking point for a while now. It was approximately six years ago when I first got a suggestion from a friend in the know that the national debt stood at about EC$2 billion dollars. Since then, the debt has increased by approximately 50 percent. One would think, therefore, that government would be more than vigilant in safeguarding every penny it collects in revenue and ensuring that it reaches the safety of the bank. Money taken from you is your loss. Money taken from the bank is the bank’s loss.

As far as I know, it is customary for entries to vaults in business places to be under dual control. That is to say, a single combination is divided and entrusted to two people and each is charged not to divulge his/her portion to the other. Similarly, in a bank’s safety deposit box, access is gained by way of two keys; one is held by the bank, the other by the renter.  The online encyclopaedia at www.wikipedia.org explains it this way: “In the typical arrangement, a renter pays the bank a fee for the use of the box, which can be opened only with production of an assigned key, the bank's own guard key, the proper signature, and perhaps a code of some sort. Some banks additionally use biometric dual-control security to complement the conventional security procedures.” The reason for all of this is that banks understand that anything in their safekeeping is their responsibility to replace if it is stolen.

In any private organization, that/those officer(s) responsible for safeguarding the funds would have been summarily dismissed. I do hope that the facts of the theft will be thoroughly investigated and that there is no cover-up even if the perpetrator(s) is/are red-shirted and/or part of senior management.

As alluded to earlier, a news item recently spoke of SCASPA’s presentation to Cabinet. One does not know the form it took but can only imagine the flowery language used in any high tech Power Point presentation to impress Cabinet. It is like a man making a presentation of a beautifully designed house; all the amenities are in place, access from any angle of the house to beautiful sceneries; a quick seller on any market. However, if the foundation and ring beam have little or no steel and the concrete and mortar mixtures are insufficiently potent, the end result would be a structure built for disaster.

Government would be well advised to ensure that the structures for safeguarding SCASPA’s assets and resources are firmly in place before releasing any funds to clear its current indebtedness because in short order other funds will turn up missing.

Let us face the facts, if government is experiencing economic turbulence in a troubled global economy, is it not likely that the man on the street is going through the same? Therefore, persons, institutions and the government have to be overly vigilant with what little they have and endeavour to prevent it from being taken. I lament that this minor challenge really should not have been an issue for a government that has been in office for 15 years.