By Erick Nyayiera
Members of Taraji Sacco in Siaya County are up in arms with the management over continued losses amounting to millions of shillings on a hotel investment over the last three years.
The agitated members while speaking during this years’ annual general meeting held in Siaya town, accused the management over what they termed as lack of proper leadership that has seen the sole investment register huge loses every year.
The investment known as Mwalimu Plaza is a key investment situated in the middle of Siaya town and hosts a hotel and various offices.
In the report on the supervisory committee to the 40th AGM, members were informed that the hotel made a loss of almost Sh700, 000 compared to the loss of Sh609, 253 in the year 2016.
“We are sorry to report to you that the hotel is seriously eating into our rental income, the general performance reveals that despite the very many interventions to improve on the profitability, there is still no signs of improvements,” read the report by the committee.
The Sacco Chairman Stephen Oluoch while addressing the charged members confirmed that the hotel operations has continued to pose serious challenges to Sacco’s management.
He disclosed that numerous efforts to turn the venture into profitability had failed.
“As we talk it has made a loss of almost Sh300, 000 and if these trends are continue, it will cap this year’s loss to more than Sh1 million,” said the chairman.
In the 2017 AGM the board was given the mandate by members to lease the hotel as a matter of urgency, the board took the necessary arrangements to find a suitable investor for leasehold but they are yet to get one.
On other challenges bedeviling the Sacco, the chairman noted financial difficulties occasioned by large refundable deposit backlog had significantly curtailed effective and efficient service delivery to members and income generation.
“Members are ever changing financial needs especially very high loan demand, we accept that this is a strength but Taraji Sacco’s liquidity capacity cannot sustain this within the policy and check off,” stated Oluoch.
The chairman also observed that implementation of the requirement of some specific society strategic goals and objectives especially on liquidity was a great challenge.
He also noted:“Recruitment of new members in the face of outstanding deposit refunds backlog cannot be underestimated including the challenge of financing strategic plan 2018-2022”.
