New details have emerged about alleged brazen corruption at the East Africa Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) following reports that large amounts of cash were being dished out to executives even as the company struggled financially.
According to a report by Business Daily, EAPCC had paid its former boss Simon Peter ole Nkeri, who was fired in May 2019, Ksh23.5 million that included severance pay.
Quoting financial documents, the publication further pointed out that it had established that Ksh10 million had been paid out to EAPCC board chair Edwin Kinyua in allowances for various activities.
The activities that attracted the hefty allowances included officiating the captain prize, meeting lawyers, bankers and attending the presidency’s Big Four agenda meeting.
For Nkeri, the Ksh23.5 million pay included Ksh8.5 million salary and Ksh1.6 million in allowances.
The expenditure came even as the firm posted losses and struggled to keep operations running smoothly.
So dire was the financial situation at the company that it had defaulted on a Ksh263 million loan it had taken from a local bank and continued to face cash flow issues.
The cash-strapped firm, as a result, failed to utilise its 1.3 million-tonne capacity due to the inability to purchase raw materials and only produced 300,000 tonnes of the Blue-Triangle cement leading to low income.
In a strange turn of events, however, the construction company still managed to part with Ksh47 million as salaries and allowances to its board of directors.
Various officials at the company reportedly pocketed huge firms including Kung’u Gatabaki (Ksh4.5 million), Sarone ole Sena (Ksh3.7 million), Humphrey Muhu (Ksh1.5 million) and Charles Mahinda (Ksh1.1 million).
According to a report by audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, the company recorded a loss of Ksh2.8 billion in the year ending June 2019 from a pretax profit of Ksh6.7 billion the previous year.
