Trouble at cash-strapped Posta as employees go four months without pay
The Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK) is facing a cash crunch as over 2,500 employees enter the fourth month without pay.
Details from the latest report by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu reveal that the country’s oldest parastatal is bleeding from debts of more than Sh2billion.
PCK is also owed billions of shillings by other state agencies as it has failed to honour its financial obligations including those of Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), pensions and gratuities deductions, cooperative dues, staff bank loan deductions and Business Registration Services (BRS) dues.
“Things are bad at the PCK. Employees are suffering and the government seems to have abandoned us. PCK workers had a black Christmas and now a black new year. We have been blacklisted by all lending institutions, including the Credit Reference Bureau,” said a PCK employee.
During the 2022 General Elections, PCK distributed thousands of ballot boxes to over 46,000 polling stations but is still awaiting payment.
The union and the employees want President William Ruto’s administration to dissolve the board of directors and appoint a new chief executive officer.
“We have a board that sits two or three times a month in disregard for the rules, yet they tell us they don’t have money. The board doesn’t care. It’s a shame we have board members who preside over an institution that does not care to pay workers,” said an employee.
The current Chief Executive Officer Dan Kagwe’s term is set to end in March after a five-year tenure.
ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo noted that the new government will revamp the operations of the agency to enable it to return into a profitable entity.
