Two Chase Bank bosses sacked over conflicting audits

Another bank was forced to sack top officials yesterday after questions were raised over its financial reporting.

The exit of Chase Bank’s chairman and managing director followed the release of two sets of financial statements within a span of six days.

The first set had understated insider loans to staff and directors by about Sh8 billion,  necessitating the second set of statements.

The development comes a week after another lender, National Bank of Kenya, suspended CEO Munira Ahmed, and five other top managers over audit queries.

Dr Patrick Njoroge Governor Central Bank Of Kenya. Two senior managers of Chase Bank were yesterday sacked for releasing two sets of financial statements in just six days. (PHOTO: WILBERFORCE OKWIRI/ STANDARD)

Two senior managers of Chase Bank were yesterday sacked for releasing two sets of financial statements in just six days.

Group Managing Director Duncan Kabui and Chairman Zafrullah Khan were sent packing after the bank returned an after-tax loss of Sh686 million for the financial year ended December 31, 2015.

Last week, Chase Bank reported Sh792 million in losses, in what could be linked to tougher reporting guidelines after Patrick Njoroge became the Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya last June.

Njoroge has vowed to enforce discipline in Kenya's banking sector, closing two banks within his first three months in office and demanding that lenders raise their provisions for loans commensurate with their levels of lending and the higher default risk following movements in interest rates.

Imperial Bank and Dubai Bank were closed in quick succession, in what was described as toxic lending practices, according to the CBK boss.

National Bank of Kenya has, for instance, reported a Sh1.2 billion net loss, after announcing a Sh3.2 billion profit only three months earlier – on account on stricter reporting guidelines.

Beyond the banks, Dr Njoroge has threatened to blacklist audit firms he suspects are colluding with lenders to cook books and conceal financial challenges.

Yesterday, Njoroge, while commenting on the surge in non-performing loans, pointed a finger on the possibility of banks lacking strong lending policies, adding that management failures and interests could also be at play.

The double exits at Chase Bank come against the backdrop of the lender receiving a qualified opinion from Deloitte $ Touché auditors who also audit State-owned lenders Consolidated Bank and National Bank of Kenya (NBK).

Usually, auditors issue a qualified opinion on financial statements when the information provided by the institution being audited is limited in scope or the company being audited has not followed Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or both.

While the statements published last week showed Chase Bank had a net loss of Sh792.6 million, the second set of accounts saw the lender report a loss of Sh686.4 million.

In terms of CKB ratios, the bank missed out on one. Against the minimum statutory requirement of 10.5 per cent for core capital to total deposits and liabilities, the bank missed by 1.2 per cent to score 9.3 per cent.

The bank also revised its provision for non-performing loans from last week's Sh1.9 billion to Sh2.5 billion.

Last week, NBK was reported to have been under pressure from CBK to adjust its provision upwards, which led it to post a Sh1.2 billion loss.