Auditor queries missing Sh172 million unclaimed Britam shares
About 21 million Britam shares worth Sh172 million belonging to dormant owners are unaccounted for due to the difference in records at the company and the Unclaimed Assets Authority (Ufaa) trust fund.
Britam records show 13 million shares lie dormant while the records at Kenya’s custodian of unclaimed cash, shares and assets shows 34 million shares should be returned to their owners.
The auditor general has also raised concerns of Ufaa’s records which under declares shares held by other companies led by StanChart which declared 55.1 million shares but the authority only took note of 14.7 million shares.
Ufaa under declared shares at Cooperative Bank by 10 million units and at Co-op Holdings by 13.1 million shares.
Variances were also noted at BAT Kenya (2.8 million shares), Diamond Trust Bank (1 million shares) and East African Cables (2.2 million shares).
There was also conflicting numbers of safety deposit boxes held at Absa, Cooperative, StanChart and Guarantee banks.
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“During the review, it was noted that the assets holders records of non-cash assets such as shares, safety deposit boxes and unit trusts differed with the unclaimed assets trust fund records,” the Auditor General Nancy Gathungu said.
The fund audited as at June 2020 held assets worth Kes38.8 billion consisting of Kes16.5 billion in cash, Kes18.7 billion in shares held and Kes3.6 billion in income retained as reserves.
The auditor also castigated the fund for slow unification of assets to their real owners at a rate of 2.7 per cent while receiving assets at a rate of 24 per cent a year.
