A board member of the Kenya Petroleum Refineries Limited (KPRL) is in breach of the State Corporations code of conduct after being in service for 19 years.
According to an audit, the said director was employed in March 2003, which shows he exceeded the allowed term by three times.
“A review of the directors’ information and biodata revealed that one director was appointed on March 25, 2003 and is currently serving an 18th year contrary to Mwongozo guidelines, which limits terms of directors to two terms of six years. In addition, no letter of appointment for the director was provided for audit review” Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu said in the latest audit report of KPRL operations.
The code of conduct (Mwongozo) was formulated during Uhuru Kenyatta’s regime targeted at ensuring sound corporate governance in all state agencies.
“The tenure of a Board member shall not exceed a cumulative term of six years or two terms of three years each provided that upon the first implementation of this Code, the appointing authority may extend the term of not more than a third of the members of the Board in order to achieve continuity” reads Article 1.5 of the Mwongozo code of conduct.
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The Mwongozo also dictates that the renewal of a Board member’s tenure for a second term should be subject to a favorable evaluation.
The six KPRL board members are, Henry Gathara Karinga and Lillian Bokkeeye Mahiri-Zaja who were both appointed on February 6, 2017, and repointed on February 21, 2020, Hesbon Olum Gondi (appointed on April 6, 2003) and the corporation’s acting chief executive Joseph Bale Ndoti who was appointed on October 7, 2019.
Other board members included Joseph Wafula Wepukhulu(appointed on November 27, 2017) and Joseph Macharia Kariuki (appointed on May 10, 2017).
Ms. Gathungu also raised an issue with the lack of evaluation of KPRL directors appointed for second terms.
“There was no document provided for audit review to confirm that one director who was appointed to the board for a second term was evaluated and awarded favorable score before the appointment for the second term. In the absence of such an evaluation, it was not possible to confirm what informed the appointment of the director to serve for the second term” she said.