The former general manager of a microfinancing organisation has been slapped with a lawsuit over alleged financial discrepancies of close to $400,000. 

Luapene Lefau of Falelauniu was the former general manager for the South Pacific Business Development (SPBD) Microfinance Samoa, a company that provides loans to women to run small businesses. 

She was employed with SPBD from February 2002 as Finance Administration Manager and from March 2019 she was the General Manager. 

According to the legal claim from SPBD, Ms Lefau allegedly abused her position by granting herself numerous unauthorised loans and an advanced salary total of $42,000. 

The company claims the former employee made intermittent payments of $99,743 leaving an outstanding balance of $392,000. SPBD is asking Ms Lefau to pay the amount back. 

She is accused of exploiting her position by approving her payroll without deducting her loan repayments. 

She is also accused of approving payrolls for certain employees without deducting the required amounts for their respective staff loan repayments, resulting in a number of employees failing to make their mandatory loan repayments. 

As a result of internal investigations, the SPBD discovered the defendant’s significant breach of the company’s policies including serious financial discrepancies. 

She was subsequently terminated on 17 June 2024 and the company tried on several occasions to get the defendant to cooperate and enter into a repayment schedule to settle the outstanding. 

SPBD alleged Ms Lefau refused to cooperate or respond and therefore no payment was received. 

The proceeding is pending in the Supreme Court and was listed on the civil list this week. 

In June last year, the Samoa Observer interviewed Ms Lefau about allegations of misappropriation of money from SPBD. 

She refuted reports claiming she resigned from the company to attend to her duties and role within the church. 

“All the money at the company is accounted for with audit and financial reports in place and there is no missing $13 million…I left on good terms with the office and you can confirm from them.”