Several members of staff of the Accounts Department at Knox College in Spalding, Clarendon, have been sent on leave to facilitate a criminal investigation following the discovery of a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme at the institution.
Principal Dr Davia Ramgeet said that the matter has been reported to the school’s board of management, auditors, the deputy commissioner of police for the crime and security portfolio, the Ministry of Education, the general secretary of the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, and the Fraud Prevention Unit of the National Commercial Bank, which is the school’s banker.
While the school did not confirm how much money was reportedly defrauded, Loop News has gathered that the sum could be in the millions.
“We recently discovered certain irregularities involving the falsification of a number of cheques issued by the college. The discovery was prompted by a recent call from our bankers seeking to verify three cheques presented to them on the day; three cheques with numbers coinciding with ones issued by the college but, apparently, altered to reflect greater amounts. Subsequent internal checks revealed that other cheque items had, in fact, been paid previously,” Dr Ramgeet said in a release.
The matter is now under full investigation by the relevant authorities, and, in the meantime, some of the staff in the accounts department have been placed on administrative leave.
The principal also noted that contingency measures have been implemented to ensure business continuity.
