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Total Uganda sues ex-staff over Shs7.5b
A fuel station operated by Total. FILE PHOTO
What you need to know:
- They also want an order that its former employees jointly pay it special damages to a tune of about Shs7.5b as general, aggravated and exemplary damages.
A fuel company has dragged six of its former employees to court, seeking to recover nearly Shs7.5b.
In a lawsuit filed before the High Court Civil Division, Total Uganda accuses its former employees of a sophisticated scheme that involved posting fictitious payment entries onto network. The entries allegedly showed that the said monies had been paid by independent dealers of their products whereas not.
The defendants include Mr Innocent Tugume, the manager; Ms Lillian Mboizi Ssanyu, the senior treasury manager; Mr Moses Sebalu, the former senior accountant; Ms Priscilla Nansikombi, the cashier; Ms Belinda Nakasi, the taxation accountant; and Ms Ritah Daphine Mbabazi, the procurement officer.
Total Uganda’s business model operates through contracting independent individuals or dealers to operate its service stations. These later pay for the fuel and lubricants through depositing money to its company’s accounts. Products are released for the station dealer to sell after the latter’s account is credited.
The fuel company states that a scam was discovered in 2019 after carrying out an internal audit between June 2016 and September 2018. The audit indicated that there was suspected fraud of fictitious payments at four of their branches. These included Ben Kiwanuka Service Station, Nakivubo, Misindye and Gapco Service Station New Oasis.
The October 21 suit adds: “The fourth defendant as a cashier in connivance with the second and third defendants receipted fake incoming payments from the first defendant created by the second and third defendants without confirming the existence of the said incoming payments for fuel and lubricant products in the plaintiff’s main online bank account statements which she had access to.”
Court documents further indicate that Ms Nakasi, as a tax accountant, and Ms Mbabazi, as a supplies assistant, conspired to conceal the fictitious non-existent payments through receipting incoming customs invoices.
The fuel company is now seeking for a declaration that its former employees are jointly liable for breach of contract, fraud, misrepresentation, deceit, unjust enrichment, negligence, and causing loss by unlawful means.
They also want an order that its former employees jointly pay it special damages to a tune of about Shs7.5b as general, aggravated and exemplary damages.
