Company secretaries told to guard firms against collapse

By Jibril Adan

Company secretaries attending an annual conference in Mombasa have been urged to keep their eyes open to pre-empt corporate failures.

The world economic crunch has been blamed on massive corporate failure occasioned by, among other things, bad decisions, the conference was told.

Standard Group Assistant Director Legal Nelly Matheka and Agro-chemical and Food Company Secretary Solomon Awino compare notes at the annual company secretaries conference in Mombasa, Thursday. [PHOTO: OMONDI ONYANGO/STANDARD]

Industrialist Manu Chandaria, who delivered a keynote address at thw annual seminar of the Institute of Certified Public Secretaries of Kenya (ICPSK) said: "As secretaries you sit in the boards and you hear the discussions. How many of you guide the board?"

Economic crunch

Chandaria said Kenya should guard against the effect of an economic crunch similar to the one that affected the US by strengthening corporate governance .

The industrialist called on the members of the association, who include The Standard Group Assistant Director Legal Nelly Matheka, to be proactive and engage leaders so that bad governance can be stopped. "Corporate good governance cannot be a slogan to appease the society. This is a major responsibility on your shoulder," he said.

He added that the same code used to run private companies should be applied to government agencies.

ICPSK Chairman Jackson Maingi said Kenya has had its share of bad corporate governance. "There have been many cases of poorly governed companies.

We have had many stock brokers going burst with investors’ money," he said.

He said the governance of the stockbrokers and investment banks has to be improved since it was the engine of investment. "We don’t have to wait for a crisis. We should be proactive and put in place measures to protect ourselves against the economic meltdown" he said.