AHL Group struggling to finance staff retrenchment dues
AHL Group Plc has informed its staff that its Board is still working towards sourcing resources to honour the payment of terminal dues for those that will be retrenched through the company’s restructuring process.
In an internal memo dated August 30, 2021 issued by acting CEO Alfred Nkhono refers to a memo of June 28, 2021 in which the staff were informed that the Group is carrying out a restructuring implementation that was supposed to be concluded by August 31.
The staff were told that the Board was “identifying resources for payment of dues for those to be affected by the restructuring”.
However, the Board still has not yet identified the resources and “therefore unlikely that the restructuring process would be concluded by August 31”.
“The Board is doing its best to conclude the financing for the restructuring and would in due course advise the firm timing of the implementation.
“Management, therefore, wishes to ask all members of staff to remain calm and continue to working as normal while the Board finalizes the financing.
“Any inconvenience the delay has caused is sincerely regretted,” says the memo.
The restructuring process includes closure of some of the Group’s subsidiaries, a move that will cut 67% of the jobs.
When the subsidiary Malawi Leaf posted a K42 billion loss in 2017, the Group faced financial woes, leading to the decision to close down others, namely AHL Commodities Exchange, City Africa Limited, AHL Chemicals and Steel Limited.
In a statement, CEO Nkhono said: “It has been a huge challenge for the business to survive since that time [2017]. We have not recovered. As a result of that, the group is undergoing a serious and massive restructuring.”
Earlier January this year, Malawi Police Service (MPS) announced the completion of investigations into the K42 billion which disappeared from a Malawi Leaf Limited bank account.
Malawi Police spokesperson, James Kadadzera confirmed the development as MPS was about to submit the files to the Ministry of Justice and Director of Public Prosecutions.
The conclusion of the investigation meant that former top bosses of the company were expected to be charged for money laundering, fraud among others.
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The best authorities can do is to prosecute those top bosses while restructuring process continues so that they can bring back public trust having being lost. As for those who will be affected due to this they should just ask God to give them another job.
K42 billion (42 billion Malawi Kwacha) cannot simply vanish! ….. and the journey from Police Headquarters in Area 30 to Capital Hill cannot take 8 months! A distance of 2 kilometres!