The Federal Police Commission has charged two individuals for allegedly embezzling 267 million Br from the Cooperative Bank of Oromia (CBO). The suspects, Samuel Demessa and Belete Waqbeka, were working at the bank in the directorial positions of Finance and Credit Management, respectively, at the Dire Dawa Branch.
They were accused of opening an account to receive money from export sales without the bank’s knowledge. Money that the Bank’s customers earned from exports would be funneled into this separate account.
The latest financial statement of CBO reveals that it has 335 million Br as a provision for doubtful accounts. This includes the alleged embezzlement at Dire Dawa Branch.
The amount is higher than the other banks in the country, which shows a considerable amount of loans and receivables that went sour.
As a result, during the last fiscal year, the Bank saw its profit plummet by eight-fold to 39 million Br.
This is not the first time such an incident has occurred at the bank. In 2015, the National Bank of Ethiopia has accused the CBO of overstating its foreign currency on hand. Then, the bank found itself unable to meet its obligations worth tens of millions of dollars.
This resulted in the suspension of the Bank’s former chairman along with the president and vice presidents of the Bank.
After such incident, NBE’s auditors investigated the case and found out there was a discrepancy between the currency CBO had in hand and the sum reported to the central bank.
The case will be presented to the court on January 24, 2017, at the Second Criminal Bench of the Federal High Court.
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