Corporate News
EADB director-general Vivienne Yeda Apopo. PHOTO | FILE
By TEA Special Correspondent
In Summary
The East African Development Bank (EADB) board is
investigating the institution’s chief executive, Vivienne Yeda Apopo,
over alleged mismanagement following demands by some employees that her
services be “terminated immediately”.
Ms Apopo has led the regional bank for seven years, having been appointed as the director-general in 2009.
The whistle-blower's note in the dossier to the
board that whereas Ms Apopo has done a good job in recovering loans, her
repeated failure and, in some cases, excessive delay in approving
viable projects recommended by senior management, have hindered the bank
from investing in lucrative ventures.
“We, a group of staff at EADB, write to express our
concern over the manner in which the bank is being run under the
leadership of Ms Viviene Yeda. We bring to the attention of the
concerned parties requesting that her services as director- general at
EADB be terminated immediately...,” the petition also copied to Kenya’s
Treasury secretary, Mr Kamau Thugge, reads in part.
The staff accused the chief executive of
cherry-picking and making funding available for mainly projects
submitted by her home country, Kenya, and questioned her motive in
allegedly sitting on projects submitted by other countries.
Ms Apopo declined to discuss the allegations raised
against her, referring all our inquiries instead to Mr Keith
Muhakanizi, the Permanent Secretary in Uganda’s Finance ministry, her
direct supervisor.
Mr Muhakanizi confirmed that the global audit firm
Ernest & Young, on the recommendation of the board of EADB on which
he sits, is investigating the claims and they expect the findings to be
submitted “in two to three months.” The investigation report, he said,
will determine the board’s next course of action.
Managerial problems
The EADB was restructured in 2011 following a
litany of managerial and operational problems, and Ms Yeda’s success in
recovering unpaid loans returned the institution to profitability.
But the bank is not making as much money as it
should because of constrained lending, according to the complaining
staff members.
“Much as she might have been good at cleaning up
the book and recovering the written off loan (which accounts for a
bigger percentage of the profit the bank has been reporting) she does
not have the will and capacity to grow the loan book,” reads the dossier
that now constitutes the basis for the ongoing inquiries.
The EADB board of directors have held back-to-back
meetings in Kampala this year to critically examine the bank’s
activities and performance.
In their letter, the concerned staff said some
designed bank projects have very high social and development impacts and
economic dividends yet the chief executive declined to approve most of
them.
From The EastAfrican
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