The AGM, according to officials, couldn’t be held as earlier expected due to the global corona virus pandemic.
At the ceremony, Louis Sarkis, president of the Association underscored the significant role the association is playing towards its members.
“The AGM will avail us the opportunities to highlightsome of the activities under the year review, discuss way forwards of theassociation among hosts of other issues. The outgoing executive will also havethe opportunity to hand over to the incoming executives.”
The importance of AGM, he went on, can’t be overemphasized, taking into account that it will also avail bureau owners theopportunities to discuss pertinent issues relating to their operations.
“Some employees of certain bureauswere dismissed from service due to fraud and other irregularities. Theassociation was informed about such development. Unfortunately, those same employeesthat are found wanting of fraud will in turn seek employment from other bureaus.”he said.
This, he added, is a result of the experiencethey had working with other bureaus, hence some bureaus will be keen to employthe individual without even seeking reference to other bureaus where thatindividual worked before.
“This practice is quite dangerous and should beavoided.Therefore, it is advisable to always conduct due diligence before employing any staff at your bureaus. In fact, theassociation is looking into having a database for all employees with thedesire of keeping track of records of those employees that are found wanting. The database will serve as a reference point for bureaus which can help and mitigatesuch circumstances.”
He recalled that in March last year, ALFOB executiveapproved D250, 000 as part of their contribution to support the governmentthrough the ministry of health in mitigating the impact of the pandemic, addingthat the presentation was made by two executive members of the association.
He called on members to pay moreattention to compliance issue, taking into account that the challenges relatingto money laundering are becoming too much now, hence they need to be a stepahead of the fraudsters
“Feel free and always visit the ALFOB officeat any time in order to seek clarification, inspect records and discuss issues pertainingto the operations of the bureaus. Come with ideas that will also help strengthenthe association.”
The forum ended with ALFOB members adoptingthe finance statement report.
