My legacy is that of performance, so trashing it kills me, Kidero now tells critics

Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero has for the second time this week come out to fight off allegations linking him the financial woes rocking Mumias Sugar Company.

In an interview, Dr Kidero maintained that he had nothing to do with the rot that has led to miller's near collapse. Kidero, who joined the firm in October 2003 and left in June 2012, said he posted positive results during his reign as the company's Managing Director.

The County Chief said he can therefore not be held responsible for what happened at the company after he left. A KPMG forensic audit report that has allowed the public a rare glance into the rot that has sunk Kenya's biggest sugar miller lists 20 persons of interest as responsible for the commercial, procurement and importation scandals.

"I am concerned that the reports have suggested that there was plunder when I was there. I ran several companies before. I ran SmithKline Beecham and Nation Media Group before Mumias and my legacy is a legacy of performance. Trashing that legacy is a big concern, it kills me," Kidero said.

The KPMG report revealed that 1,497 trucks left Mumias Sugar Company's warehouse between 2011 and 2014, but were diverted on the way to the miller's other storage centres across the country, in a distribution scam that has cost the country's biggest miller billions of shillings.

Some of these transporters were paid millions of shillings, despite having not delivered a single kilogramme of sugar, says the report which is in our possession.

Auditors revealed that Mumias was duped into paying in excess of Sh62.9 million in transport costs for the diverted goods, with staff accepting "theoretical" deliveries.

But Kidero maintains that during his tenure, all the consignments were accounted for.

"Verification was always done and at times sugar can be diverted so that rather than being taken to the warehouse, it goes straight to a distributor's warehouse and that reduces cost because you pay when you are loading and pay when unloading," he said.

"So if you have an order and there is a truck on the way, you give it directions and divert it so long as it is invoiced. The figure of 1,400 trucks would translate into Sh1 billion and there is no time the company was not able to account for Sh1 billion," he added.

CORRUPTION CATALOGUE

The audit report also unearthed a catalogue of corruption and outright breach of procurement rules. The audit showed that there were fake sugar exports worth Sh2.7 billion.

But Kidero maintained that he always ensured that the procurement laws were followed.

"We had a policy on procurement and everything was followed to the letter. Anything up to Sh25 million was done by the management committee," he said.

Kidero explained that any tender valued at above Sh25 million was done by a technical team and reviewed by the Management Tender Committee then taken to the Tender Board Committee and management sat in on the presentations.

"Sales discounts were done at the point of sales and there was a sales policy. Discounts are guaided by market dynamics," he said.

Asked what has brought down the miller, which is counting on a Government bailout to get back on its feet, Kidero laid the blame on sugar poaching in western Kenya.

"When I was at Mumias I guarded Mumias cane and looked out against cane poaching and we never ran out. So after I left, I think probably the company was overwhelmed and they lost quite a lot of cane to the factories that had been built without having developed their own cane," he said.

The county chief said cane insufficiency would force the miller "to crush young cane whose recovery is not very good".

"No sufficient cane for the factory to run on a daily basis. I believe that if Mumias problems are to be resolved, the issue of cane must be resolved," he said. Kidero argues that some farmers probably stopped growing cane while others sold theirs to rivals.

"Farmers want to be paid and if they are not paid on time they would sell it to someone else. Farmers were always paid on time and so the business performance indicators on my term were positive," he said.

Kidero also defended awarding a fertiliser tender to Shah Kanji & Sons, who had sent their quotation even before the tendering process began.

He said the fertiliser tender was awarded at Sh31,000 per metric tonne against a competing bid of Sh39,000 per metric tonne.

"That is why I recommended it to the Board Tender Committee and they ratified it," he said.