KTDA factories move to curb fraud

Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) factories in South Rift region have put in place new mechanism to curb fraud by logistic assistants during weighing of green leaves.

Toror Tea Factory in a notice to small-holder farmers, signed by unit manager Raymond Bett, informed the farmers that logistic assistants are now provided with 10kg check weights.

“On arrival at the leaf collection centre before weighing of leaves, the logistic assistants are required to test the weight scale. Once they are done, they generate a receipt, which must be signed by one committee member or grower present,” he said.

Bett added that the process should be done in the presence of the tea growers to ensure the credibility of the scale and growers must confirm it.

33 sacked

The new move comes after the Employment and Labour Relations court judge Monica Mbaru upheld a decision by four tea factories under KTDA to sack 33 logistics assistants.

The workers drawn from Tirgaga, Olenguruone, Kapkoros and Motigo tea factories were fired after they allegedly falsified green leaf records and tampered with weight machines.

KTDA holding company secretary John Omanga told the court that the employees were sacked after they were caught manipulating the weight records.

They were asking farmers to place the same constant weight bag on the weighing machine as the same is recorded and digitally transmitted to the date centre through the PDA machine.

“When this happens, the weights are manipulated by either being assigned to the same or a different farmer based on what the logistic assistant keys in on the PDA machine,” he said.

The logistic assistants with PDA machine are the only ones with particular password for the same and can easily manipulate a date, which then leads to irregular weight recording.