CUSTOMER EXODUS FEVER! Witch-hunt cited as ‘reputation battered’ Stanbic bank fires 10 staff to win clients' confidence

Stanbic bank may undeniably be one of the leading banks in Uganda.

However, that one does not insulate it from fraud—internal and external.

Day and night pressure has been mounting on the bank to assure clients that their savings and other interests in the bank are protected.

According to insiders, the early this year heist that saw a customer lose about $1.8m (shs 6.5bn) after the financial institution’s system was compromised hit the bank hard.

The alleged $1.8m fraud reportedly dealt a severe blow to its reputation.

And we are told some customers since then have been quietly withdrawing their money.

As the bank tries to win back clients’ confidence, it has since fired ten staff to manage the exodus.

The bank’s head, People and Culture, David K Mutaka, said their investigations showed the fired staff were engaging in unethical behaviour or negligent, gross misconduct and being dishonest.

The internal memo announcing their firing and seen by this publication reads thus: “It is our individual responsibility to act in accordance with our Group values and ethics. Our personal good conduct is a key value driver for our business, and we must actively work towards upholding and maintaining it. Through the Brilliant Basics initiatives in all teams, we have made good progress, in awareness, upskilling, behavior and recognition.

“Regrettably, we continue to see incidents of unethical conduct or gross negligence among us and as earlier communicated; there will be zero tolerance for any behaviour that compromises our values. In Q3 [January, February and March] so far, following Group investigations, a total of 10 employees exited due to unethical behaviour or negligence. The staff below have exited the bank for gross misconduct and dishonesty.”

Mutaka goes on to name those fired and they include Constant Ndyamuhaki, Sales consultant Shadrac Kakooza, Namuriba Racheal, Senior Relationship Manager Natolie Wilfred Enock, Kiribaki Ayub Bashabe, and teller Lawrence Ssemakula.

Others who have been knifed include Electronic Banking manager Jeniffer Atim and Credit evaluation officer Moureen Kyomuhendo.

This publication understands branches normally targeted for fraud are Forest mall and Garden city.

Full details of why they were sacked will be in our subsequent publication. But some are to do with petty cash fraud, credit advance mess among others.

Those who survived the chop have been asked to be accountable and be each other’s keeper as far as unethical behavior is concerned.

“Remember, our success in improving the risk environment hinges on each of us being accountable, acting with the highest level of integrity, by reporting any form of unethical behaviour via the safe and protected channels. In addition, we encourage you to raise any issues of lapses or process weaknesses that expose the business to risk,” Mutaka adds in a memo to staff.

Most of those affected have reportedly been taking advantage of the bank’s weak system for personal gains.

“They have been taking advantage of the weakness in the bank system on behalf of their bosses for personal gains. It’s the issue that keeps re-occurring because the bank partially handles it. The responsible staff are punished and the line managers who are actually supposed to be accountable are shielded and most times are drafted to be part of the disciplinary committee to decide the fate of their direct reports yet they are culprits. When new staff are brought in, the same happens because it’s in most cases through their [managers] authorization,” reveals an insider we talked to for this article.

More staff are also reportedly being lined up for chop, especially in regions like Mbale, Jinja, Kamuli and Busia.

We have also learnt that several Stanbic bank’s banking agents are not happy. These are mostly those who send money to clients more than once due to sometimes system failures. However, reclaiming this money from Stanbic bank and third party partners like Centenary bank, Richard Jabel’s Agent Banking Company of Uganda (ABC) has always been a hurdle. But this is a story for another day as over 500 banking agents from Stanbic bank only are crying foul. UGANDAN BANKS: WHAT YOU DIDN’T KNOW? HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TREATED UNFAIRLY BY ANY OF UGANDA’S COMMERCIAL BANKS? TELL US YOUR STORY. CALL/TEXT/WHATSAPP 0777959024 OR EMAIL: [email protected] WITH AS MUCH EVIDENCE AS POSSIBLE. SOURCE PROTECTION/CONFIDENTIALITY IS OUR NO.1 PRIORITY.