Sheraton Theft Blamed on Cash-based Economy
Justina Okpanku
All is not over yet in the Sheraton theft last year. The accused employee and general cashier, Lawrence Agada, allegedly stole N39 million belonging to his organisation Sheraton Lagos Hotel & Towers. Police detectives in Lagos arrested Agada. At the moment the court case is ongoing.
There have been plenty of questions to ask because of the theft as
it has grave implication for the Hospitality industry. Moreover, the prestigious and famous brand name of Sheraton international was nearly soiled.
But the new General Manager of Sheraton Lagos, Mr. Alexander Gassauer in an interview with THISDAY recently, dismissed the image problem with the wave of the hand.
"First of all, I might say this happens anywhere in the world; it happens in any business around the world. If you have a dishonest person, he will be dishonest here in Nigeria or in Alaska or Japan or in South Africa. A dishonest person is a dishonest person. This happens anywhere."
Gassauer blamed the theft on cash-based economy Nigeria runs unlike the electronic cash system in advanced countries.
"In this country, compared to Europe and other parts of the world, people pay cash. There is a lot of cash payment here. The chance of someone getting away with some cash is much more than in Europe where you use the credit card to pay for goods and services. So you have a lot amount of cash turning over on a daily or monthly basis.
Like his predecessor Laurent Certelet who was general manager of the hotel at the time of the incident and was believed to have been hurriedly transferred to Sheraton Tunis, he said that there is a lot of lesson to learn from the theft.
"I have no idea if Sheraton recovered the money or not. To be honest, this was before my time. You can put rules and regulations in place for every possibility. What you need to do which the hotel has done is to keep all its principles in place, to catch this thief."
He added: " I assure the legal system in Nigeria will take care of it. If he is found guilty, I guess there is penalty form him."
Many blamed the account department of the hotel describing the incident "as a result of their negligence".
The general manager, therefore, stressed that the people involved must be caught.
"It is a matter of time. We are trying something to prevent any single criminal activity. If somebody is criminal, he is a criminal. And one day he will be caught," he said.
Perhaps it was this reason that Certelet exonerated LoveWorld Ministry aka Christ Embassy church in Lagos, after the embattled Agada confessed that he stole the money and used it to fund several projects of the church.
"The staff is responsible; he is an individual. He is a grown up person. When a staff is stealing the money he is the culprit. He is the culprit not the church."
The hotel has since embarked upon a "cleaning up exercise" of their house.
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