E8m stolen from Central Bank by Ackel Zwane At least about E8 million has been stolen from the Central Bank of Swaziland, in what was a single electronic transaction late last year. At least about E8 million has been stolen from the Central Bank of Swaziland, in what was a single electronic transaction late last year. Ever since the discovery of the loot, the bank has been battling to recover the investment funds that was stolen and transferred electronically to a South African bank, where it was also immediately withdrawn. The bank was only able to locate E500 000 of the amount which is currently frozen in the South African account to which the whole amount was transferred. questionnaire Central Bank of Swaziland Governor Majozi Sithole said he cannot comment unless there was a written questionnaire. This is despite that same was sent through the bank’s communications department on March 6 and the acting communications manager, Patrick Ndzinisa, acknowledged receipt of same and promised to call back but did not until the governor was called later yesterday. He had indicated that head of communications Sibusiso Mngadi, who is on leave, had been handling the matter with the governor’s office and bank’s legal advisor. Our investigations have revealed that in October last year the bank had been working towards investing the money in an investment portfolio so that it could generate some profit. This was the task of the investex (investment and exchange) department which prepared the paperwork. transfer The last leg was to be in collaboration with the ICT department for the final transfer. It has been revealed that adherence to rules had relaxed a bit in recent years at the bank to the extent that safety procedures were not followed to the letter. It is for this reason that investigations have taken so long to catch the culprit(s) because it has been easy to hide evidence. In this case, for instance, the transaction was made outside the work station where transfers are made with the various passwords all under CCV cameras. It has been established that the person(s) who effected the online transaction was very knowledgeable of the systems and procedures because he used a computer that was not connected to the entire network and therefore could not be traced to its operator. transaction All computers at the bank are assigned to persons together with a password. Before a transaction is made authority must be sought in such a manner that the transfer would not be effected without the authority, which comes from various stations of authority. In this case again the authority was not a requirement, it would seem. Immediately the money was transferred it was deposited into an account of a dead account holder at the South African side, it has been gathered. By the time the Central Bank woke- up to the problem and alerted the South African bank, it was too late as E7.5m had already been transferred to various accounts and cashed. Former Governor of the Central Bank Martin Dlamini, asked to comment since this took place while he held office, could not even wait to hear the details of the enquiry and steadfastly said he would not speak on any matter relating to the bank because he was no longer there. engaged It has been established that a local forensic consultancy firm has been engaged to investigate and it discovered that a disused computer was re-used and therefore belonged to no one in particular in the system. It also discovered that the transaction was effected away from where the cameras could record the images. It can also be revealed that two employees from the Investex department were suspended over the matter but have since returned to work due to lack of evidence. However, one employee in the ICT department is said to be on suspension but likely to return because again there is no sufficient evidence to effect any concrete decision. Police Public Relations Officer Superintendent Wendy Hleta said police were advanced in their investigations, adding that a breakthrough was imminent. She could not elaborate. observer.org.sz/news/59795-e8m-stolen-from-central-bank.html
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 11:36:25 +0000
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