No Collective Management Organisation (CMO) will be licensed for 2020-22 by the Kenya Copyright Board until it complies with the newly amended Copyright Act.
This affects Kenya Association of Music Producers, Performers Rights Society of Kenya and the Music Copyright Society of Kenya.
Kecobo’s board deferred the licensing to establish proper governance systems and eradicate wasteful management of royalties.
CMO heads will have to provide a forensic audit for 2017- 2019. CMOs must be properly structured to ensure compliance with the law, various regulations, good governance and integrity in the management of members’ resources.
Another stipulation is CMOs must obtain a fresh mandate from members through proper and transparently conductedAGMs.
The CMOs senior management staff and board members should be vetted and relevant background details provided.
Kecobo will undertake a formal review of the CMOs’ registers to ensure they are legit.
Even after the CMOs meet the above checks and hand in reports, Kecobo will have to ensure the organisations adhere to conditions such as restricting the number of meetings to check board expenses.
The law stipulated the CMOs should be restructured to ensure proper separation of board and management responsibilities. The most important aspect of the reforms is the CMOs’ administration cost has been capped to not more than 30 percent of their collections.
The licences will be issued subject to acceptance of joint collection among the three music CMOs, which will be required to procure and use an ICT system for collection, monitoring and distribution of royalties. The system has to be approved by the regulator.
