How teachers are losing their pay to loans and goods they never took

Kenya: Is your salary being deducted to pay for hire purchase goods you never bought? You are not alone.

Franklin Mule is among the rising number of teachers being forced to pay for hire purchase goods they did not buy. Fraudsters obtained their vital documents and bought these goods then got away, leaving the teachers to carry the can.

 But Mule complains that even though the police, the Teachers  Service Commission (TSC) and WoodVenture Kenya Ltd — the hire purchase firm — are aware of the fraud, the deductions have continued. This has left him convinced that the fraudsters may be colluding with some members of these organisations to defraud teachers.

  Mule holds to this theory because these organisations have formally acknowledged that the deductions were a result of a fraudulent transaction derived from forged documents.

Apparently, the fraudster managed to get a copy of Mule’s ID and forged payslip from the TSC then convinced WoodVenture that he was Franklin Mule and disappeared with a TV set and oven worth Sh150,000. But when Mule challenged WoodVenture, it was  discovered their records had the wrong information – the passport size photograph recorded as Mule’s was of someone else, and so were the fingerprints in the contract document.  This, WoodVenture readily acknowledged recently.

 The strange events began to unfold in December last year when Mule, who has been a primary school teacher for the last 17 years, noticed an anomaly in his salary. There was an unknown deduction of Sh6,250 on his November pay.

 He did not understand where the money went, so he went to the bank to check if there was an error. But there was none, so he set out to the TSC headquarters in Nairobi. “I lodged a complaint at the TSC pay slip department. After they fed my TSC number to the computer it was revealed that I had acquired a hire purchase facility from WoodVenture Kenya Ltd,” says the teacher at Kithiiani Primary School.

 “I had never heard of WoodVenture Kenya Ltd. In my entire life I have never taken a hire purchase facility. I was shocked,” he says.

Forged signature

It was then that TSC contacted the company. A Mr Joel confirmed that Mule bought a Samsung LED 40 Inch Television and a Ramtons Microwave RM310, all valued at Sh150,000.

Mule’s quest led him to WoodVenture Kenya Ltd’s offices on lower Kirinyaga Road in downtown Nairobi, where he found out that someone had impersonated him.

 “My personal information was on their system, yet I had never laid eyes on any of its employees or even set foot on the premises,” he says.

“The first thing I noticed from the documents I purportedly signed for was the passport photograph in their possession, which was not mine. Even the signature was forged and there were no dates in any of the documents,” he says.

He was asked to leave his fingerprints and sign on a piece of paper so they could follow up the matter.  He declined to do so for fear that they might use that information against him.

Mule was asked to return the following day when the company’s bosses were expected to be around so they could resolve the matter. They however cautioned him against  reporting the matter to the police arguing that it would take long to resolve it if he went to the authorities.

But Mule went on to file a complaint against WoodVenture Ltd on the illegal deductions on his pay slip.

“I suspected something was fishy when they warned me not to go to the police. So I passed by Central Police Station to record a statement. There, I was referred to Machakos CID offices. But when I got there, they had information that I had earlier gone to TSC to get my November pay slip. I do not know how,” he says.

WoodVenture failed to explain to Mule how they came about his personal information, including a copy of his national ID card.

“I requested for a temporary stop order, pending investigation, but they said that would only be possible if I wrote a signed request with my fingerprints. I insisted we go to Central Police Station to record a statement, but they declined. They said I had proven to be difficult and therefore they would not to assist me,” he says.

Determined to get to the bottom of the matter, Mule returned to the Machakos CID offices and was referred back to Central Police Station, where he recorded another statement. This time round,  two CID officers accompanied him to WoodVenture Ltd, where they confiscated the original hire purchase agreement and the deduction form for further investigation.

Deliberate cover-up

The documents were found to have been forged. The forms did not have specific dates of the transaction, no signature and rubber stamp from Mule’s employer as well as those of WoodVenture Ltd.

It was also realised the pay slips used­ — his and that of his purported guarantor Lucas Nzioki, a teacher at Iuuma Primary School — were not genuine. Investigations also showed fingerprint impressions on the hire purchase agreement and hire purchase deduction forms were not identical to his or Nzioka’s.

WoodVenture Ltd was then forced to stop the deductions and release the phone number of the purported guarantor. They also promised to refund the two months deduction that amounted to Sh12,500. However, Mule is yet to receive the money.

“One of the officers pointed at me and said: Hii kampuni iko na wenyewe, iko na watu wakubwa na ukijaribu utapigiwa simu uulizwe kile unachoendeleza. Usijaribu. (This company is well connected. If you pursue the matter, you will receive a call to explain what your intentions are. Do not even try),” says a distressed Mule, who took it upon himself to locate Nzioka, as the pace of investigations seemed to slacken.

“I travelled to his rural home but his father told me he was away. I took his number but it has never gone through and he has never contacted me,” he says.

In January, Mule could not get in touch with the case investigating officer via his mobile phone, so he sent a text message to enquire on the progress of the case. “Suspect not traced,” was the text reply he got.

He later came to learn that the officer had blocked his (Mule’s) phone number.

Following the slow pace of investigations and after making countless trips to Central Police Station to no avail, Mule sought the services of a lawyer, who wrote a letter to the CID at the Central Police Station, asking them to speed up the case.

In response, the police denied any form of intimidation, and added that they had accorded the case the attention it deserved and are still pursuing it.

“I suspect there was a deliberate attempt to cover up the case,” Mule now says.

The events of the past months have drained Mule psychologically and financially. But he says all he wants is justice to be served and for the nightmare to end.

When contacted, WoodVenture Ltd said Mule’s cheque has been ready since January, but he had not gone to collect it.

“We are refunding his money because a fraud was committed. Someone used his identity to purchase goods and in the process we also lost Sh150,000,” said Joel Aduma of the Credit Control Division at the company.

Henry Nzioki, another teacher from Kituiu Primary School in Machakos County, is also a victim of the scam. His salary was deducted under mysterious circumstances.

From July 2012 to August 2013, Sh3,800 was deducted from his monthly salary and paid to Capital Bridges for an alleged loan of Sh113,000 they claim he took.

“Before that, I had never heard of a company by that name. I had not taken a loan from them but I was somehow servicing it,” he says.

Nzioki sought the services of a lawyer and launched an official complaint. The company claimed they were erroneous deductions and vowed to reimburse his money. But they are yet to do so.

The teacher thought he had solved the matter until March this year when the deductions started again. He says Sh5,428 went missing, money that was debited to the same company. This time, the firm claims he bought items worth Sh35,000 on hire purchase.

“I have no idea where they got my personal information and why they are doing this to me. I want my money back and for all this to end,” says Nzioki.

Elizabeth Munyiva, a teacher at Nyaani Primary School in Machakos County, also fell victim to the scam. Every month since July 2013, she has been paying Sh310 to Capital Bridges.“I do not understand these deductions, as I have never transacted any business with the said company. I wrote a complaint letter to the Kenya National Union of Teachers but I am yet to receive a response,” she explains. Munyiva says she thought  Knut was better placed to handle the issue.

TSC Secretary Gabriel Lengoiboni says it is only when an official complaint is raised that they get to know of illegal deductions made through fabricated pay slips.

“If we find out that certain companies are illegally deducting funds from our employees, we cut ties with them. However, we are not aware of such cases because they are rare,” he says.

Unauthorised deductions

Mr Lengoiboni denied allegations that pay slips used to acquire loans or hire purchase commodities in such circumstances are manipulated at the commission, adding that TSC is not making unauthorised deductions from teachers’ wages.

“The fabricated pay slips do not originate from us. There are cartels or individuals who come up with fake pay slips that tend to appear as though they are from us,” he adds.

Lengoiboni has asked teachers to be cautious not to misplace or give out their pay slips lest they are robbed of their money. He says the commission is embarking on awareness campaigns among its employees.

“If anyone notices deductions on their pay slips they are not aware of or have not authorised, they should immediately report to the commission for appropriate action to be taken. It is teachers’ responsibility to scrutinise their pay slips and follow up on unknown deductions,” says Lengoiboni.

Police spokesperson Ziporah Mboroki says cases where someone obtains another person’s documents and uses them to get money or goods by false pretenses  exist but they can only act when it is made known to them.

“When something like that happens, it amounts to fraud but we cannot know for sure that someone used another person’s pay slip and other documents fraudulently unless the employer comes into the picture,” she said.