Corruption in the workplace is nothing
new. In fact the cases that actually come to light are probably only
a tip of the iceberg.

In our Summary Court last Tuesday (24)
two government health workers, Dominic Fernando Dacres and Nick
Romano Smith, appeared before the magistrate on charges of false
accounting and obtaining property by deception.

The false accounting was overtime
claims for pay that were not worked.

We, the public, actually have to pay
the salaries of these two thieves, makes me very angry. That they
want to fleece us out of our hard worked for monies doesn't enter
their heads.

The false accounting happened a full
twelve months January to December of 2017.

Mr. Smith (Nick) was Mr. Dacres
supervisor, and he knowingly OK'd the false documents Dacres
submitted to him. He also did the same thing with another man not
named. This one was for thirteen months.

Smith received a third charge of breach
of trust, that was deemed more serious and is to be dealt with by the
Grand Court.

It has been argued that men are more
corrupt than women. Or women are better at not being found out.

It would seem women make better traffic
police. Statistics from various countries taken from men seem to
point that whilst male police officers might “turn a blind eye”
to an offense, you can forget about even bothering to try.

However, when it comes to false
accounting there is nothing to suggest gender is a factor.

If safeguards are put in place, and are
seen to be in place, corruption in the workplace is normally a
non-starter. It is when "trusted employees" in large
organizations have been given the "keys to the kingdom"
with little or no oversight and control, just like our government
Health Service.fraudulent or corrupt behavior will occur.

If safeguards had been in place then it
would not have taken a year for someone to have been caught.

It would be nice to know how these two
men were eventually found out. Was it due to the Auditor General?

If you do not believe that fraud and
corruption is possible in the workplace, you will never identify it,
even if it is clearly evident.

A fraudster will only commit fraud when
there is a perceived opportunity to solve their problems in secret.
They don't anticipate getting caught.

If a fraudster rationalizes their
conduct, to them it is legal or justified. Thus, they don't see their
actions as something they should be punished for.

I firmly believe corruption in the workplace is actually a very easy thing to stop as it usually needs more than one person's involvement.