ICPSK wants company secretaries in mid-sized firms

By Macharia Kamau

The Institute of Certified Public Secretaries (ICPSK) wants the Companies Act amended to make it compulsory for mid-size enterprises to have company secretaries.

Currently, the law only requires companies with a paid capital in excess of Sh5 million to have the position of a company secretary.

However, the Institute wants this revised, and only exempt firms that have a paid of capital of Sh100,000 from having secretaries.

A company secretary within a firm is charged with ensuring that the company is in compliance with various provisions of the law, as well as governance procedures in a company.

"Some of these firms are huge entities and have a major impact on our environment. Exempting such companies, some of them bigger than a number of quoted companies, would no doubt compromise the tenets of good corporate governance," said Joe Mbuthia, the chairman ICPSK. "We have already proposed to the authorities that the law should be changed to exempt only companies that have a paid-up capital of less than Sh100,000 from having a Company Secretary."

Mbuthia was speaking yesterday in Nairobi, when the Institute held a post budget briefing.

He noted that while most of the aspects in the Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta’s budget ministerial statement might be targeted at improving the economy, as well as betterment of the socio-economic status of Kenyans, the lack of good structures might stand in the way of achieving this end.

"There are numerous instances where money is allocated, but is never put to its intended use," he said.

"To implement the budget effectively, there is need to ensure that there are checks and balances that will prevent money from siphoned out and oversee that its put to its intended use."

Sammy Onyango, the chief executive officer of Deloitte East Africa noted that review duty on diesel might have jolted agriculture and in turn food security.

"The minister may have focused on agriculture in his allocation, but when it came to diesel, a key component in agricultural production, he left the duty at 20 per cent," he said.

Uhuru also announced measures that Government is taking to cushion the public from the high cost of living. These include allocating substantial amounts of money to agriculture, as well as excise duty and duty waivers on food imports and fuel prices.

Mbuthia said the Government should implement of these measures quickly to ensure the public get the benefits.