A promotion is always expected to be good news in a career until the challenges that come with it are laid down an appear to be the new employees nightmare. This tale will soon be told by Andambi after handling Kenya Pipeline Company.
KPC has been tainted by reports of corruption scandals, the recent being the fuel conveyor’s plan to pay Sh4.4 billion to Zakhem Construction, a firm awarded a Sh48 billion tender to build a 20-inch Mombasa-Nairobi pipeline, as compensation for delays.
Amidst investigations,Kenya Pipeline Managing director Joe Sang, whose first term was to end in April next year, handed his resignation letter to the board on Tuesday morning.
In the letter, Mr Sang said that “due to personal reasons”, he would not be seeking the extension of his term, which was supposedly expected to end his troubled tenure at KPC but the law was quick to chain him afterwards.
As the probe continues,the Ministry of Mining and Petroleum has appointed an interim managing director to run the scandal-dogged Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) on the day its former MD Joe Sang was arrested by detectives.
Hudson Andambi, who has been an alternate Director representing the Ministry at the KPC board, will take the corner office as the board sits next week to pick a replacement from the management.
Petroleum Principal Secretary Andrew Kamau said in a statement today that Mr Andambi would only stay for a ‘couple of days’ to fill the void.
“He is only there to hold until the board meets next week to deliberate on the way forward, may be up to Tuesday or Wednesday and then he will be back to the Ministry. He is someone with a grasp of the place having been an alternate director for the board,” Mr Kamau said.
Mr Andambi is currently the Senior Principal Superintending Geologist and Head of Upstream Petroleum Operations in the Directorate of Petroleum where he also serves as the Deputy to the Secretary, Petroleum.
Reports of stage-managed stock declarations emerged in October after ten leading oil marketers demanded to have independent experts counter-check KPC’s spillage reports that had over time been inflated and the cost subsequently transferred to consumers.
The oil marketers adopted the tough stance while declining to transfer the burden of 11 million litres to consumers that had been declared as spillage.
KPC had indicated that 7.2 million litters spilled while another 4.4 million was stolen.
In a resolution by the board dispatched to media houses ton Tuesday, oil markers were allowed to conduct a forensic stock audit by December 31 to ascertain the claims of misleading spillage reports.
Do you think Andambi will be able to handle his new heat?