Imperial Bank Limited depositor’s stage demo outside imperial bank headquarters in Nairobi to express frustration one year since the Bank was placed under receivership by Central Bank of Kenya on Thursday, October 13, 2016.
BY SAM ALFAN.
Details are emerging that Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC) has now written to Imperial Bank’s non- executive directors and shareholders’ representatives informing them that its Sh45 billion asset freeze application in court will not rely on the forensic audit conducted by FTI Consulting.
Philip Murgor representing KDIC in a response to the directors lawyer Andrew Wandabwa, stated that their case is built around the evidence found in the bank’s annual reports and financial statements.
“The September 30th 2016 application has not in any way referred to an ‘Investigation Report’ by FTI Consulting, not placed reliance on any such report,” Murgor in the KDIC response to the
directors said.
Wandabwa on the other hand had requested KDIC to provide the directors with the forensic audit
extensively attributed in the asset freeze suits.
In his request to KDIC on October 11th, Wandabwa asserts: “As we Endeavour to draft and file our replying affidavit it is clear that the affidavit filed in support of your client’s notice of motion dated 30th September, 2016 heavily relies on investigation reports by FTI Consulting.
Therefore in order for us to respond appropriately to the claims leveled against our client it will be imperative for us to peruse all FTI Consulting investigations reports and documents relied upon in the said report as well as the terms of reference used to engage FTI Consulting in the investigation.”
The FTI forensic audit which could be the most expensive audit ever done in the history of Kenya’s investigation has never been made public.
The bank directors have filed an application seeking to compel KDIC to make public all FTI Consulting forensic audit reports touching on the bank post
receivership.
Last week Imperial Bank Limited’s non-directors demanded that Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC) and Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) be compelled to make all report by FTI Consulting Limited public.
This comes as depositors’ staged demo at imperial bank Headquarter in Nairobi to express frustration they have undergone for a year since the closure of the bank by CBK.
They are seeking orders compelling KDIC and CBK to make public the report by an international forensic audit investigation firm appointed by the CBK to carry out “a detailed and in-depth forensic audit on the purported fraud committed on the Bank.”
They alleged the FTI Consulting Report and the substratum of the case rest on various allegations and findings allegedly contained in the Report, which KDIC and CBK have not produced to substantiate their allegations.
FTI Consulting was initially engaged by the bank managers to conduct in-depth investigations into the affairs of the bank. FTI Consulting thereafter submitted an initial investigation report and the same did not allude to the fraud, negligence and/ or generally the findings as alluded to by KDIC and CBK.
“The allegations made by KDIC and CBK are therefore unsupported and unfounded,” said the directors in court papers.
They said that KDIC and CBK’s application having been certified as urgent, they (former Imperial bank directors) have proceeded to file their responses. However, the vague, general and unsupported allegations contained within the case filed by CBK and KDIC have prejudiced them.
“This has made it difficult for us to aptly respond to the said allegations, by reason of which it is necessary for the Court to give directions on this issue,” said the directors.
They want the orders they are seeking granted to enable the court to have before it all such material as is necessary for a fair, just and expeditious hearing and disposal of the case.
