The Fraud Squad has been called in to probe the siphoning of funds at the Jamaica Teacher's Association (JTA) following the discovery of massive fraud by auditors three weeks ago.
The police were called in, after the area which housed the auditors, was the scene of an attempted firebombing.
Dr Mark Nicely, President-Elect of the JTA, said the Fraud Squad was called in a week later as the auditors indicated that a large amount of funds was missing.
“As you can understand and appreciate, this is now a police matter. I can confirm that this is major, this is significant, it is unprecedented”
The entire accounts department has been sent on paid leave as an investigation is conducted but none of the signatories to the JTA's accounts have been sent home.
“The cheques were genuinely our cheque leaves, they were signed by officers who were so authorized to do so. So the cheque themselves were not fictisious. The demand for the cheque, that may have been there was perhaps no legitimate reason , because we did not require those services”
Dr Nicely said security has been incrased at the Association's office and the Fraud Squad and Auditors will conduct a full investigation.
“We had no indication of fraud, we were receiving monthly financial statements. Those would have been perused by our Finance Committee, they will further be discussed at Central Executives. We would have raised internal questions. But none of what we saw over the year , indicated to use that we were experiencing losses of this magnitude” he said.
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