Postmaster General/Chief Executive Officer, Major-General (Rtd) Hussein Ali steps down from the corporation with the prompting of his board of directors who found his performance in the first three years of service wanting. Photo/File
The search for a new postmaster general begins in earnest on Monday when the Ministry of Information names an acting chief executive for the Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK) and calls in applications from those interested in the company’s top job.
The move effectively brings to an end the tenure of former Commissioner of Police Maj General (Rtd) Hussein Ali who has been at the helm of the State-owned firm since 2009.
Maj Gen Ali steps down from the corporation with the prompting of his board of directors who found his performance in the first three years of service wanting.
The ministry said on Friday that Mr Ali’s position would be advertised this week — signalling that the appointing authority (Information minister Samuel Poghisio) is not ready to pick a fight with the PCK board or engage in a protracted legal battle as it recently did with the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) board.
“The board will appoint a new Postmaster-General on an acting capacity by Tuesday who should start work immediately as we begin the recruitment of a new CEO,” Information permanent secretary Bitange Ndemo told the Business Daily in an interview.
“We we cannot afford to go against the board’s recommendations.”
The parastatal’s board in March concluded that Maj-Gen (Rtd) Ali had failed to meet the threshold of 70 per cent needed to retain him at the helm of PCK.
He scored 52 per cent and the board asked Mr Poghisio to retire him and start the process of hiring a new CEO.
The verdict came despite Maj –Gen (Rtd) Ali having in mid-March asked the board to extend his contract in line with new guidelines that require CEOs of State-owned companies to seek renewal of their contracts six months before the expiry date.
Maj-Gen Ali’s term is due to end in September but Dr Ndemo said he will proceed on leave from today pending his retirement in four months.
In the CCK case the board had advised Mr Poghisio against renewing former CEO Charles Njoroge’s contract in a letter dated March 10, 2011, saying he had scored 60 per cent against a qualifying mark of 70 per cent.
His tenure at the police department was tarnished after he was named among the six post-election violence suspects by ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo for crimes against humanity. The crimes were linked to the disputed 2007 elections.
The ICC prosecution alleged that Ali authorised the use of excessive force and facilitated attacks against supporters of the opposition ODM, but the ICC pre-trial chamber ruled in January that there was insufficient evidence against him.
Mr Poghisio’s decision to follow the PCK board’s advise is expected to bring to and the era of political appointments to head the corporation.
“The appointments of the heads of the Postal Corporation of Kenya have been done politically and this has driven its performance to the current status,” said Robert Yawe a local IT consultant.
“To bring the corporation back to profitability, the next appointee should be a person who understands the problem facing PCK and have solutions to them.”
PCK has in recent years experienced stiff competition from private courier firms.
The use of technology such as email and mobile money transfer, which are becoming the preferred mode of communication and money transfer, has continued to threaten its core business of snail mail.
“The decline can be attributed to the stiff competition the sector faces from other ICT service providers with efficient and less expensive means of communication,” says CCK in its annual report for September to December.
In March last year, a UK consulting firm, IBM, released a report recommending vigorous restructuring at the postal corporation with an aim of getting on board a “younger, energetic talent” to drive the agency in a competitive market.
IBM Corporate Service Corps said PCK should also tap into new business opportunities such as offering government and banking agency services to boost its earnings.
The firm said PCK should partner with other government agencies to offer online services such as motor vehicle registration, passport and personal identification numbers (PIN) through its 700 outlets countrywide.
PAYE Tax Calculator
Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
