The Government will open a Criminal Investigations Department unit within the Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority, according to Industry and Cooperatives Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya.
According to Mr Munya, the unit will prevent malpractice including the misuse of members’ funds and corruption by Saccos that channel funds for other purposes.
In addition to the DCI unit, Munya said that the Government would review the regulations governing the Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority and reinforce the recommendations in the draft policy to address issues of poor governance and non-remittance of members’ funds by employers.
Part of the review includes expanding the role of SASRA beyond regulating, and supervising deposit-taking saccos. The ministry also wants to set up guidelines to vet Sacco leaders in terms of Education, years of experience and age used to determine eligibility.
However, Munya has suspended proposals seeking to bar the term of co-operative leaders to 10 years after it was highly opposed by SASRA leaders on the grounds of illegality.
If passed to law, the new policy will also task Counties will roles of registering, auditing and inspection and monitoring county- specific Saccos, the powers of commissioners for cooperative development will also be reviewed.
The ratification of the policy document has been postponed to 14th May to give more time for scrutiny; it will later be submitted to cabinet for processing before it is enacted as law.
