ANTIDOTE TO DOMESTIC STAFF FRAUD AND KIDNAPPING
It has been advocated that one of the best ways to curb domestic kidnap and other vices prevalent in the workplace is the use of background check services.
This recommendation was made by the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Primex Background Check Ltd, Frank Oyorhigho while answering questions from a group of reporters in Lagos recently.
According to Oyorhigho, while making reference to the recent kidnap of two toddlers of the same parent in Lagos by their house maid, he said that if the parent of the children took time to conduct background check on the maid and the agent through whom they got the maid, they would have been able to discover that they were scammers and that would have prevented them from hiring her.
Background check according to the former Skye Bank staff, is not only for use by corporate organisations but by everybody and for any cadre of staff and personnel.
“As far as you deal with human beings, you need to have background information about them to help you make quality decisions” he said.
According to him, background check services is not a security exercise but a tool that can help security personnel to carry out their job more effectively. He said that if there was a background check report on the lady and the agent, the police would have had enough information to investigate the incident. “But as it is now, the police is working almost on a blank sheet which makes the work tougher”.
On whether people should stop patronizing the use of house help, the Delta State born background check consultant said that, because of the economic situation of the country where both husband and wife have to work to keep the family going, it is almost impossible not to engage the services of house helps. He therefore advised that before you engage the service of staff both for domestic and corporate use as a matter of exigency you must conduct background check before making the hiring decision.
While reacting to to the issue of cost, he said that the cost of background check is just a fraction of the amount it will cost you to engage the police to investigate the matter when the crime is eventually committed. The psychological trauma that victims go through cannot be measured in monetary terms. So it is safer, cheaper and healthier to conduct background check before engaging the service of any personnel.