Salima Sugar Company Limited Executive Chairman Wester Kosamu has said the future of the company looks promising.
Kosamu told Business Times on the sidelines of the presentation of the draft functional review report by Omega Consulting and training on public procurement by the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA) that things have started moving in the right direction at the sugar maker.
“Salima Sugar is up and running. Salima Sugar is doing well. For example, if we can stop the machines today, looking at our debtors list, you will find that Salima Sugar will have a profit of about K2.4 billion as we speak today. There was a practice that the company was borrowing what we call seasonal loans. The company was borrowing working capital from the bank of about K7 billion, sometimes K5 billion.
“During our time, we didn’t borrow. We are just doing with what we have. So, all the purchases—for example we are purchasing rulers, rubbers—we are paying cash. We have no other loan apart from the guarantees that are there,” Kossam said.
He observed that the functional review exercise will help every employee of the firm to know what to do.
“There was supposed to be skills transfer from our former managers who came from India as experts so that in future, Malawians should be able to run the company on our own. But that never happened.
“Now, when they left, they left a gap. So, we need to fill that gap. We believe through these trainings our Malawian employees will acquire the knowledge that they were lacking to some extent,” he said.
Salima Sugar Farm Supervisor Charity Kanono Salapa hailed the firm for the functional review, saying it would help every staff member to concentrate on their core duties.
Last year, a forensic audit report by Audit Consult revealed that about $30 million (about K52.5 billion) was plundered at the Salima-based sugar maker by politicians, civil servants and foreign investors. Attorney General Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda vowed in December last year to recover the money.
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