Kenya’s business newspaper, Business Daily, which is owned by the Nation Media Group is reporting that Safaricom chief finance officer Mr. John Tombleson has been recalled by Vodafone, which owns a 40 per cent stake in the telecommunications giant.
The recall comes a few weeks after Safaricom was involved in a storm following a leaked audit report by audit firm KPMG that pointed out disputed tenders worth tens of billions of money. The 23 controversial tenders were worth Sh. 289.4 billion.
READ: Storm at Safaricom over Sh. 289 billion disputed tenders
The audit report notes that five senior executives including the Safaricom chief finance officer Mr. John Tombleson had influenced the irregular purchasing of plots at Garden City at bloated prices. Apparently, the leaked report claimed, Safaricom had irregularly paid Sh. 1.15 billion for five acres of land. This saw the telecommunications giant pay Sh. 230 million for an acre of land, which apparently was more than double the price of acre around the Kasarai area. Currently, an acre is going for about Sh. 100 million at the area. Safaricom has been planning to build its headquarters on this land.
However, while speaking to the Business Daily, Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore declined to say whether Mr. Tombleson’s exit was linked to the audit report, and instead maintained that the report was an incomplete draft that had been illegally leaked to the public.
53-year-old Tombleson had succeeded Christopher Tiffin, who served as Safaricom’s chief of finance for three years beginning August 2008.
