A supermarket employee arranges Mumias Sugar bags. FILE PHOTO | DIANA NGILA |
NATION MEDIA GROUP
Cash-starved Mumias Sugar is set to receive Sh500 million bail
out package next week after the miller announced a plan to replace top
managers.
Announcing the rescue plan, Agriculture
Cabinet Secretary Felix Koskei said release of the funds follows a plan
by the company to effect changes at the top management which are
“credible and responsive to the demands of the business.”
“In
the spirit of accountability, all those found to have contributed to
the company’s current challenges must be held to account… as a
government, we will not watch as they walk free and enjoy ill-gotten
wealth,” added Mr Koskei.
Earlier Mumias advertised six
top management jobs including chief finance services officer, chief
agricultural service’s officer, chief factory operations officer and
chief human resource officer.
SACKING
It
is understood that the recruitment may result in sacking some of the
current managers as they will be required to re-apply for their jobs and
face fresh vetting.
The vetting is to be based on
results of an audit report conducted by audit firm KPMG, which is said
to have linked a number of managers to corrupt deals. The report has
never been made public.
“Strategies formulated will
return the company to its profit-making ways and serve the needs of all
stakeholders,” Mumias Sugar board chairman Dan Ameyo said on Friday.
“Stakeholders are unanimous that there is need to identify a new team that can drive the business differently,” said Mr Koskei.
REFORM STRATEGY
The
Treasury had last month set conditions that the miller presents it with
a clear reform strategy as a precondition for a bail out package.
“But
there has to be very clear stabilisation and reform plan which covers
the short-term, medium and long-term. We can’t just blindly pump money
into the miller,” Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich said.
The
company announced last year that it had renegotiated a Sh5 billion debt
repayment with seven lenders as it posted a loss for the second year
running.
ILLEGAL SUGAR IMPORTS
In
September, the listed miller suffered Sh2.7 billion loss for the year
ended June 2014, blaming it on illegal sugar imports that depressed its
ex-factory prices. It had recorded Sh1.6 billion loss in 2013.
It has also emerged that Mumias is also heavily indebted to Kenya Revenue Authority and Kenya Power.
“We
intend to engage all government agencies such as KRA and Kenya Power to
whom Mumias is heavily indebted to support the bail-out by putting on
hold any precipitate action,” said Mr Koskei
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