Kenya Power’s internal audit has done severe damage and found the utility giant to be inherently corrupt financially; the audit found that the 384 employees had been forging the payslips uniformly to fool the banks and get the loans fraudulently. The probe has shocked the energy industry, revealing the practice of white-collar crime that has been widespread across several departments.
The forensic audit was directed at the discrepancies in the payroll and the company’s external financial commitments; it showed that the staff members under investigation were manipulating their earnings records to be seen as more creditworthy by the lenders.
By exaggerating their net salaries and hiding the debts they had on their official documents, the employees were able to get around the stringent lending criteria, thereby potentially putting millions of shillings’ worth of commercial capital at risk.
This institutional betrayal is coming at a very critical moment for Kenya Power, which is already facing tough questions due to inefficiencies in operations and rising electricity prices. The fact that almost 400 staff members were able to get through the internal controls and put up an outside financial scam indicates a total breakdown in the company’s human resources and payroll verification systems.
Internal sources have revealed that the syndicate involved all levels of employees, thus making it possible that the “payslip factory” had been operating with the knowledge of the company for quite some time. The electrical company has taken steps to discipline the concerned workers and asked the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to take over the investigation.
The repercussions are predicted to be both rapid and drastic. Apart from the instant firing of the 384 staff, several commercial banks are reported to have started their own audits to assess the risk they are exposed to.
This scandal is not only a threat to the sustenance of hundreds of families but also an employer’s reputation in the banking sector as an unstable one. The purge that has just started sends out the message that the “ghost income” era at Kenya Power has come to an end.
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