Directors of the Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) will forward the final report on the forensic audit on operations of three Collective Management Organisations to law enforcement agencies for fraud investigation.
The board has directed that the CMO staff and board members mentioned in connection with possible loss of members’ funds to step aside.
“Investigations and any prosecutions will be conducted in a professional manner, the rights of all individuals including the presumptions of innocence will be respected,”Kecobo chair Mutuma Mathiu said.
Also, the board of directors ordered an overhaul of the management of royalties by CMOs by commissioning Kecobo management to develop new policies and regulations to facilitate closer oversight.
“Kecobo management has been directed to issue new policies and regulations to be implemented before the new licensing period.”
However, the decision will not affect the current year’s collection licences of three CMOs.
Some of the intended reforms include administrative and oversight measures to strengthen ICT deployment, audit, accounts, procurement, record keeping among others.
Provision of a new audit tool for biannual review to reshape CMOs reporting structures, restructuring of CMO management, new measures for the election of CMO directors among others.
The new policies are intended to cure major issues raised by the Final Forensic audit, including diversion of royalties, poor governance, and separation of roles.
The forensic audit also noted that lack of critical policy documents or breach of existent in human resource, non-remission of statutory deductions, and non-compliance with other statutory requirements.
Also, suspected fraudulent transactions, ghost or duplicate members, and poor record-keeping, in general, was highlighted by the forensic audit.
