Posta staff go four months without pay
More than 2,500 employees of the financially troubled Posta Corporation of Kenya (PCK) are bracing themselves for hard times as they miss their salaries for the fourth month in a row.
The broke corporation has failed to honour its financial obligations, including those of the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), pensions and gratuities deductions, cooperative dues, staff bank loan deductions and Business Registration Services (BRS) dues.
The latest report by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu reveals that PCK is reeling from debts of more than Sh2 billion. Even as it struggles to stay afloat, the PCK is also owed billions of shillings by other state agencies.
The PCK distributed thousands of ballot boxes to over 46,000 polling stations for the 2022 General Election but is still waiting for payment. Its workers were last paid their monthly salaries in September last year.
“Things are bad at the PCK. Employees are suffering and the government seems to have abandoned us. PCK workers had a black Christmas and now face a bleak new year,” said an employee. “We have been blacklisted by all lending institutions, including the Credit Reference Bureau.
“Some of the employees have been reduced to beggars, while others are surviving on the Hustler Fund, which they are unable to repay. We can’t blame our union. It has become helpless.”
Last year, union officials, led by Central Organisation of Trade Unions Deputy Secretary General Benson Okwaro, faulted Posta management for ignoring the plight of workers.
“We’re not going to have an organisation that runs a football club but says it does not have money to pay its staff,” said Mr Okwaro.
Board dissolution
The union and the employees want President William Ruto’s administration to dissolve the board of directors and appoint a new chief executive officer.
“We have a board that sits two or three times a month in disregard for the rules, yet they tell us they don’t have money. The board doesn’t care. It’s a shame we have board members who preside over an institution that does not care to pay workers.”
The struggling state agency is finalising the recruitment of a new postmaster general as the current chief executive Dan Kagwe’s tenure comes to an end in March after a five-year tour of duty.
“The shortlisting process is in top gear and the shortlisted candidates will be invited for an interview between now and February,” said an employee familiar with the process.
Mr John Tonui has been appointed as the acting postmaster general and chief executive officer.
The new postmaster general will have a Herculean task as the entity is largely operating in a desolate business environment and still tightly gripped in the old ways of communication of sending letters via largely dormant post office boxes that are gathering dust.
“I hope the incoming postmaster general will be a transformative and business-minded man or woman who will restore hope and keep abreast with the digital disruption sweeping across the globe,” said another employee in Nakuru city.
ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo has indicated that the new government will overhaul the operations of the entity to enable it to return to profitability lanes. BY DAILY NATION
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