Kenya: Sony Sugar on the verge of alleged theft of Sh335m



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By Stella Cherono

The South Nyanza Sugar Company (Sony Sugar) is on the scene of an alleged embezzlement of a Sh335million loan obtained from Commodities Fund last year.

The company received money from the agricultural sector but did not carry out the scheduled annual maintenance of the plant and its ancillary facilities, and there are only 60607 shillings shillings on sale, while some of the money was diverted to finance other activities

. the loan service, he did not start paying, and accumulated interest. The bank guarantee also expires in seven months as the trustees fear that the maintenance process will not be completed.

The state company requested funding on January 26, 2016, to enable it to undertake scheduled annual maintenance of the plant and its auxiliaries. facilities, an application that was approved by the Ministry of Agriculture on September 26, 2016.

BANK GUARANTEE

A bank guarantee guaranteed the loan and disbursed the funds in three installments in March, April and May 2017. This would be the first time the company has received a loan since 2009.

The company used internally generated funds.

The loan was to allow the company to optimize sugarcane, improve steam production and improve extraction. among other things, an exercise that was to cost 402 million shillings but the company expected it would increase by 67 million Sh.

Although the original plan was by mid-May, the ministry of Agriculture through the Directorate of Agriculture and Food – Sugar Directorate postponed activities because there was a shortage of sugar in the country

. The company again postponed the exercise on October 3, stating that this should be done at any time between December 2017 and February 2018.

OPERATIONAL REALITIES

This is based on operational realities and the need to call in foreign contractors. the anxiety surrounding the post-election events around Migori. "

This is despite the fact that the Commodity Fund, in a letter dated January 18, 2018, informed Sony Sugar that the guarantee of the Cooperative Bank provided as security for the loan expires on February 24, 2018. [19659003] In its response, the sugar company negotiated with the bank and the guarantee was renewed and increased by Sh754,844 in March 2018, to cover interest until the end of the year. delays, the board of directors decided that management would undertake a monitoring and evaluation exercise to determine whether monthly payments should be made before the end of June 2018.

In its audit report, the monitoring and evaluation team reported that the company had made 12 aggregate withdrawals totaling 38,652,378 shillings in its bank accounts, at different levels. dates between November 2017 and March 2018.

A review of bank statements showed that all orders shown in the report on the state of purchases were not reflected in the account statement and vice versa.

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