IT experts investigate Sacco’s Sh50 million loss

The Kenya government has sent IT experts to help recover crucial information from Nandi Hekima Sacco where more than Sh50 million belonging to the society cannot be accounted for.

The IT experts were called in after allegations that some financial records were destroyed to conceal the loss of the funds.

Thursday, officials from the Ministry of Cooperatives and the Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (Sasra) went through the society’s records with the help of the IT experts and the acting society CEO Eric Chepkwony.

Mr Chepkwony replaced Silas Kipkemboi who was suspended last Friday together with directors Jackson Rotich, Robert Seroney and John Korir.

Suspended officials

Sasra chief executive Carillus Ademba suspended the officials for 60 days to pave way for investigations into how Sh5 million was drawn from the Sacco to finance an agricultural inputs venture, Hekima Coop Holdings, owned by the directors without a resolution from members.

The officials will be removed from office and be barred from holding positions in the sacco movement if found culpable.

Troubles at the Sacco started in 2006 when Sh8 million withdrawn from an Eldoret bank got lost in an alleged robbery before the money could reach the society’s Kapsabet office. Some of the directors had withdrawn the money

Sh10 million borrowed

Another Sh10 million borrowed from a bank could also not be accounted for.

The Commissioner of Cooperatives’ enquiry into the Sacco’s affairs recommended that the incumbent committee be dissolved and barred from holding positions in the society for 10 years.

The report found that Mr Kipkemboi, who had not gone on leave since 2001, got an unsecured loan of Sh500,000 without authority from the credit committee.

It also recommended that the society appoints a suitable person to the position of internal auditor.

Last November, a former Sacco secretary, Mr Alfred Mwey, wrote to Sasra demanding that the society’s licence be revoked over poor management.