The board of directors of Kenya Power is on the spot for failing to appoint a substantive Managing Director despite spending Sh3million towards the cause.
The board of Kenya Power in May appointed Geoffrey Muli as the company’s acting Managing Director, replacing Rosemary Oduor who had served the position (still in an acting capacity) since August last year.
Ms Oduor had been appointed following the resignation of former MD Bernard Ngugi and there was the expectation that the troubled utility firm’s next move would be to appoint a substantive MD. When she was edged out, suspicion built on what was cooking at the company known to overhaul its top management regularly.
New details now reveal that for five months until the replacement of Ms Oduor with Mr Muli, the company had been engaged in an exercise to seek a substantive replacement to Mr Ngugi, but still ended up with yet another acting MD.
The Auditor-General reveals that Kenya Power paid Sh2.9 million to a consultancy firm, Deloitte, to help it get a suitable holder of the office but hasn’t acted on the advice six months later.
Mr Geoffrey Wasua Muli, the newly appointed Acting Kenya Power MD.
“The company procured a consultancy for the provision of Executive recruitment services of the Managing Director to Deloitte Consulting Limited through a contract signed on January 27, 2022,” the Auditor-General stated in Kenya Power’s audit report for the year ended June 2022.
The report notes that Deloitte was hired to provide services including analysis, preparation of applicants’ profiles, longlisting, shortlisting, interview, and recommendation of the suitably qualified applicant for the position of MD.
Just two weeks before the appointment of Mr Muli- the current acting MD- the Auditor General states that Deloitte wrote to Kenya Power board chairperson Vivienne Yeda and indicated it had concluded the recruitment process.
Deloitte presented the results of screening, and final interview and recommended candidates for consideration to the board chair and was paid the full contract price of Sh2,989,320, the audit report states.
“However, documentary evidence including reports of the consultant, evaluation results, recommendations of the consultant, and Board minutes and resolutions on the matter were not provided for audit review.
Further, no explanations were provided on why an appointment of acting Managing Director was yet to be done,” the report states.
The Auditor-General flags the issue, warning that the utility firm may have wasted the Sh3 million. “The expenditure incurred may have been wasteful since the position was yet to be filled.”
The approved budget for the exercise initially was Sh2.6 million, but it was later awarded at Sh2.9 million. BY DAILY NATION