Category Archives: KACC

Corruption is Always a Good Story

Look at these quotes about corruption.

Material corruption of the highest magnitude seems to be flourishing in African public life (1)
The speed which with  people in authority amass personal wealth can only point to the assumption that they use their public positions to get rich as soon as possible (2)
Although several governments have advisory commissions to suppress corruption and have anti-corruption officers, these measures are ineffective. (3)
The president has decreed that all ministers declare their wealth but has exempted himself (4)
The prime minister has in 2 years since taking office, been able to purchase property ten times his net worth, and completed 4 houses. He also owns proportion Washington that he rents out t o the Embassy (5)
What worries me is that those in power are not really affected by what we are writing (6)

These are now new, but are from an article called Corruption in African Public Life, that was published in the East Africa Journal (does it still exist?) in November, 1967. That issue had Uganda President Milton Obote on the cover and cost Sh 2.25.

While it warned, in 1965, that corruption was the greatest single cause of the fall of governments in Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, it also noted, in a philosophical perspective, that corruption was not East African creation, and that Plato, in his “Republic” had posed that leaders should not own any possessions except their power, they should live in communes and not marry. Also that, in East Africa, only Tanzania has taken concrete steps to fight corruption, through the Arusha declaration which banned capitalism & feudalism, the holding of directorships in private companies, receiving more than one salary, and owning houses to be rented to the government.

Re: the quotes above:

(4) was Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana.
(5) was Sir Albert, in 1967 Sierra Leone.
(6) was Kenya’s Sunday Nation quoting Chinua Achebe.

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Report & Reduce Corruption

The latest quarterly report from the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission (KACC) report was buried under a ton of criticism owing to the fact that it was perceived to continue the Anglo-Leasing cover-up.

Kenyans should face up to the fact that KACC is here to stay, regardless of who is in charge and use it to fight corruption – by reporting what they observe & perceive to be corrupt activities.

In the absence of proper whistle blower protection in the country, the commission has made it possible to report corruption anonymously (even by e-mail) which should trigger investigations such as those mentioned (in the quarterly report)that range from alleged CEO shopping demands to lowly clerks asking for bribes.

One weak point of KACC is that they only make public reports once their investigations are complete. They should also mention ongoing investigations and give a chance to more people to come forward, give evidence, and build stronger cases.

Unfortunate reference
In reading on the Citigroup/ CNBC ethical debate, I came upon the phrase Ugandan Discussions – an unfortunate slang term which demeans a country.

Bank & anti-corruption jobs

Various jobs at Investments & Mortgages (I&M) Bank (Details should be here soon) including;

General manager finance & corporate planning
Manager risk management
Relationship officers/managers
Manager liability management (Nairobi)
Manager finance & administration
Human resource officer
Credit officers (Nairobi)
Compliance & quality assurance officer
Management trainees (people aged 22 – 25 who have studied abroad in the UK, New Zealand, Australia & Canada are encouraged to apply)

Apply to the group human resource manager at recruit@imbank.co.ke or p o box 30238-00100 Nairobi by April 25.

Website officer at the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission who will be in charge of day-to-day management and maintenance of a their site. Apply to the director, KACC p o box 61130-00200 by April 25.

Banking, Corruption, Jobs

IMF on Kenya
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will only support drought operations in Kenya until their next review of country operations at the end of April.

Report corruption online
At the new Kenya Anti Corruption Commission KACC website. The launch was graced by Parliament Speaker, Francis Ole Kaparo, whose office is not so not so enthusiastic about websites.

Barclays improves
Barclays has joined the growing list of progressive banks by installing an ATM that accepts cash & cheque deposits at its Queensway House Branch. Many more are sure to follow.

More 2005 banks
I&M (No. 10). Loans and customer deposits increased by over 3 billion to 11b and 14.8b respectively. The Bank also increased its share capital by 500m during year.

Housing Finance (No. 14) reduced government securities from 1,346m to 796m while loans were flat at 6.5b. Profit before tax was also the same at around 100m.

Baroda (No. 15) loans increased from 2.7b to 3.4b while customer deposits also increased from 7.1b to 8b. However paying higher interest on customer deposits resulted in profit before tax dipping from 274m to 238m.

Bank of India (No. 17) Loans increased by 700m, deposits by 800m, and profit before tax increased from 73m to 80m.

Fina (No. 19) which has a significant Rwanda operation bounced back from a 2004 loss of 51m to a 2005 profit of 95m largely from reduced provision for bad debts.

Giro (No. 21) which was acquired in September by the State Bank of India went from an 04 profit of 14m to a loss of 6m in 2005 largely due to increased operating expenses.

Southern Credit (No. 26) the credit card powerhouse increased deposits by 500m to 3.6b. But paying higher interest on deposits and increased operating expenses halved profits from 61m to 31m.

Victoria (No. 27) customer deposits and placements were each up by 500m to 5.58b and 1.56b respectively. While fee income was flat, profit before tax increased from 45m to 124m largely from increased interest income.

Habib (No. 32) bank (not to be confused with the other Habib AG Zurich) posted a reduced profit of 21m, down from 94m, owing to increased interest on deposits and provision for bad debts.

Consolidated (No. 33) reduced their ’04 loss from 90m to 13m in 2005. While staff costs increased from 150m to 195m, they were able to contain other operating expenses.

Fidelity (No. 37) improved from a ’04 profit of 1m to a 23m in 2005 owing to increased fee and commission income and reduced provisions for bad debts.

Paramount Universal (No. 39) loans increased from 758m to 892m and profit also went up from 12 to 16m.

Other Developments

Tax war
Between the United Business Association and the Kenya Revenue Authority over the issue of electronic tax registers

Tourism
The 2006 tourism expo targeting the low season kicks off at the Sarit Center on March 31.

Solar for tourists: Mombasa beach hotel is seeking a solar-based water heating system (deadline is April 28).

Jobs

British American tobacco
– Accounts assistants
– Trainee technical operators
Apply by April 12 to hr_batkenya@bat.com

CFC Bank
– Communications/network engineer
– Database administrator
– Software engineer
Apply to the senior manager HR P O Box 72833-00200 Nairobi by April 10

East African Breweries
– Demand planning manager
– Field logistic coordinators
Apply by April 12 to hrrecruitment@eabl.com

East African Standard
– Head of ICT services
– Head of HR services
Apply to pa-gceo@eastandard.net by April 10

Research & development manager at an investment bank. Apply to fke@wananchi.com by April 12.

Manager customs & excise at Pricewaterhousecoopers. apply to recruitment.ke@ke.pwc.com by April 13

Various jobs at the Kenya Meat Commission which plans to resume operations in June ’06.
– Apply to the Federation of Kenya employers at fke@wananchi.com for production manager, quality control manager livestock manager, internal auditor, HR & admin manager and finance manager positions.
– Former employees under 55 years who were in following departments – technicians, production, machine operators meat cutters, and packers are invited to apply to kenyameatcom@africaonline.com.

Local corporate briefs

New newspaper
Royal Media Services launched The Leader a new weekly newspaper today (July 29). The first issue doesn’t really break any news, but has analysis of events that have been in the news this week such as the constitutional referendum, KACC investigation of the Kenya Navy ship (has an interview with Justice Ringera), the split in LDP and debt relief for Kenya.

The first issue has some major advertisers, who are extensions on their radio stations such as British American Tobacco, CFC Bank, Kenya Revenue Authority, Keroche, and the Windsor Country Club. The paper joins the Royal Media stable which also includes: Citizen TV (the people’s channel), Radio Citizen Tosha, Ramofi FM (kar chuny jaluo), iNooro FM (muugi ni mutaare), Mulembe FM (omwoyo kwa baluhya) and YFM (live it, love it). It retails for 40 shillings and can be e-mailed here.

Bank IPO preparations
Equity Bank will be fresh capital through a listing at the Nairobi Stock Exchange by November, and this week, the Bank’s MD talked to the Standard to dispel anxiety that that it could the next big bang in the financial sector.

New ADB president
Rwanda’s Finance Minister Donald Kaberuka was elected as the new President of the African Development Bank Group (ADB) during the extraordinary Meeting of ADB Governors held in Tunis. The Rwandan Minister faced fierce competition from a Nigerian candidate.

Postbank gets new MD
Mrs Nyambura Koigi is the new Kenya Post Office Savings Bank (Postbank) Managing Director. Prior to the appointment, she was the company’s Director of Operations and has been the acting MD for almost a year. Nyambura, who holds a Masters degree in Business Administration from the University of Nairobi, has over 23 years experience in banking. Last month, Nyambura said Postbank would pursue its dream of converting into a full-fledged commercial bank, but the bank’s ambitious conversion plan has met stiff resistance from the World Bank.

Bankelele

Nairobi writer on Banking, Finance, Technology, and Investments