Officers in loan racket sacked
Twenty-Eight officers on probation at the Internal Revenue Commission (IRC) have been sacked after an elaborate loan racket operated by a senior officer backfired on them.
The senior officer, a human resource officer who had since left IRC, had lured about 25 officers to unknowingly apply for loans ranging from K10,000 to K20,000 between December last year and July.
The officers on probation believed that they were signing documents for the transfer of the human resource officer’s IRC allowances into their individual accounts in return for commissions.
James (not his real name), a victim of the scam, told the Post-Courier that the accused, Ray Asi (a human resource officer with the IRC at the time) falsified loan application documents and took out loans ranging from K10,000 to 20,000 under the names of about 25 officers between December last year and July this year.
James said Asi had approached him asking to transfer what he (Asi) referred to as “his allowance from IRC,” into James’s personal bank account because he (Asi) had an existing loan on his account.
After James agreed, Asi presented him with a document to sign, which allegedly authorized the transfer of the allowance to his targets’ personal bank account, from which he then withdrew the funds.
James was surprised when he received an email from the National Finance Limited legal team on July 27 demanding him to procure approval from his employer for deductions to his fortnightly income to finance his loan repayment which amounted to K19,433.11 within seven days under the threat of legal action.
Shocked at the discovery of this unsolicited personal loan, James brought his complaint to the HR department only to discover that the accused had repeated the scam 24 times with different IRC officers.
According to the source, the affected officers were advised by the IRC not to approach the police or initiate any legal action as the matter was to be dealt with internally, while the culprit had already resigned, leaving them with the crushing debt.
Adding insult to injury, all 25 were officially terminated by the IRC three weeks ago (November 22).
In an official notice of charges, acting IRC commissioner general Alois Daton, highlighted that all 25 were charged with fraud, disgraceful conduct in their official capacity and violating the oath of office, despite their denial of collusion with Asi.
Furthermore, scanned copies of the falsified loan applications indicated that James was from West New Britain Province when he was actually from Madang and Manus.
Other fields in the loan application also indicated falsified information, however, in spite of the discovery of this information, IRC management has insisted on the culpability of the 25 officers.
The sacked officers are now fighting for a way to get their jobs back.
Attempts to obtain an official comment on the issue from Mr Daton were unsuccessful.
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