MOCA raiding 'fattened family' in Labour Ministry fraud

Investigators from the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA) and the Financial Investigation Division are now conducting a series of raids in Kingston and St Andrew in connection with a major fraud at the Labour Ministry.

Among the places being targeted is the office of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security's Rehabilitation Programme.

"These operations are another step in an investigation into a multimillion dollar fraud being carried out by persons employed to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security," a MOCA spokesperson said in a release.

READ: Ministry staff gives close relatives, friends $2 million

It is reported that employees within the ministry have been using their positions to defraud the Ministry of funds by generating and facilitating fraudulent payments.

MOCA says so far investigators have uplifted several documents and electronic devices which are believed to be of significant evidential value.

This week, the Sunday Gleaner reported that an accounting clerk in the Ministry’s Rehabilitation Programme gifted $1.7 million to her husband, mother, her three sisters, three brothers and a friend, from the fund established to provide emergency grants to the poorest of Jamaicans.

The accounting clerk was responsible for preparing the Payment Advice Listing at the Public Assistance Department at the ministry's office at National Heroes Circle in Kingston.

The clerk was also tasked with entering the payments on the accounting system and assisting in batching cheques for dispatch to the parishes.

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