Worker fired for N$1m theft

PROSPERITY Group Namibia has sacked an employee after it was discovered that hundreds of thousands of dollars had gone missing.

Managing Director Kobus Struwig confirmed that an internal investigation was launched after irregularities were detected. He said they had already dismissed the female employee and sources said she had offered to repay the money by selling off her property.A deal was struck not to go to court if she resigned and paid back the money, sources said.”It is an internal investigation.It has not yet been established whether it was fraud or negligence and it will be premature to say anything now,” Struwig said when approached by The Namibian.Sources claimed the employee siphoned money electronically from the E-Med account of Prosperity Health into the accounts of dummy companies she had created.”She pretended that the money was paid out for services which were never rendered.We suspect that it could be anything between N$800 000 and N$1,1 million,” claimed one source.Struwig denied the amounts but refused to give details.”We have dismissed her and now we are following the correct procedure, which is the internal investigation.By dismissing her, it will give us time and space to investigate,” he said.The Namibian’s sources said employees received a memo on August 10 informing them that the employee had been fired due to irregularities.The first hearing took place last week, were she allegedly signed an admission of guilt document and undertook to pay the money back.She was, however, reluctant to implicate anyone else in the fraud.It is believed that the company was busy with a “complete audit” to establish the impact the fraud had on its operations.E-Med Rescue 24, a medical emergency evacuation and ambulance facility of Prosperity Health, was launched in May 2004 through a black empowerment deal between Netcare 911 from South Africa, Namhealth and the Prosperity Group.The Prosperity Group started as Prosperity Health in Namibia in 1994 and has fast become the broadest-based healthcare organisation in the country.It administers and manages more than 70 per cent of the healthcare services in the Namibian medical aid market, including the Public Service Employees Medical Aid Scheme (PSEMAS).Shareholders include Nammic (Mineworkers’ union funds), Labour Investment Holdings (LIH), Effort Investments (of the Namibia Public Workers’ Union), Kalahari Holdings (Swapo investment company) and Juventus (Swapo Youth League investment).The company has a 24-hour, seven-day operations call centre, ambulance and paramedical services infrastructure and flight evacuation service and has partnered with other evacuation services in the region and World Wide Travel Evacuation to provide services to clients and members anywhere in Africa and the world.He said they had already dismissed the female employee and sources said she had offered to repay the money by selling off her property.A deal was struck not to go to court if she resigned and paid back the money, sources said.”It is an internal investigation.It has not yet been established whether it was fraud or negligence and it will be premature to say anything now,” Struwig said when approached by The Namibian.Sources claimed the employee siphoned money electronically from the E-Med account of Prosperity Health into the accounts of dummy companies she had created.”She pretended that the money was paid out for services which were never rendered.We suspect that it could be anything between N$800 000 and N$1,1 million,” claimed one source.Struwig denied the amounts but refused to give details.”We have dismissed her and now we are following the correct procedure, which is the internal investigation.By dismissing her, it will give us time and space to investigate,” he said.The Namibian’s sources said employees received a memo on August 10 informing them that the employee had been fired due to irregularities.The first hearing took place last week, were she allegedly signed an admission of guilt document and undertook to pay the money back. She was, however, reluctant to implicate anyone else in the fraud.It is believed that the company was busy with a “complete audit” to establish the impact the fraud had on its operations.E-Med Rescue 24, a medical emergency evacuation and ambulance facility of Prosperity Health, was launched in May 2004 through a black empowerment deal between Netcare 911 from South Africa, Namhealth and the Prosperity Group.The Prosperity Group started as Prosperity Health in Namibia in 1994 and has fast become the broadest-based healthcare organisation in the country.It administers and manages more than 70 per cent of the healthcare services in the Namibian medical aid market, including the Public Service Employees Medical Aid Scheme (PSEMAS).Shareholders include Nammic (Mineworkers’ union funds), Labour Investment Holdings (LIH), Effort Investments (of the Namibia Public Workers’ Union), Kalahari Holdings (Swapo investment company) and Juventus (Swapo Youth League investment).The company has a 24-hour, seven-day operations call centre, ambulance and paramedical services infrastructure and flight evacuation service and has partnered with other evacuation services in the region and World Wide Travel Evacuation to provide services to clients and members anywhere in Africa and the world.