By BIOLA AZEEZ, Ilorin

The Management of Kwara State government-owned transport corporation, popularly called Kwara Express, has said that the transport company was temporarily shut down because of alleged fraud and indiscipline by the staff.

Speaking in Ilorin at the weekend, the group managing director of the holding company, Harmony Holdings Limited, Mr Abdullahi AbdulMajeed, said that review and investigation of the allegations in the company have started with the aim of remodelling it for profitability and sustainability.

AbdulMajeed, who said that Kwara Express is one of the companies owned by Harmony Holdings Limited, added that the company was temporarily shut down because of alleged systematic fraud being perpetrated by the staff of the company over the years, including resistance to positive change.

According to the GMD, the systemic fraud being perpetrated by the staff of Kwara Express made it impossible to run the business profitably right from the time it was a public corporation before the business was acquired by Harmony Holdings, which is the investment management company of the state government.

He also said that despite being transformed from a public corporation to a private limited liability company, the same challenge still confronted the company, which he said was occasioned by lack of corporate governance, ineffective cost structure and indiscipline of staff.

“In this period of COVID-19 pandemic, when resources are scarce and the government is looking for alternative sources of revenue, all government businesses must be made to function optimally and profitably and Kwara Express cannot be an exception. Government of Mallam Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq has given Harmony Holdings all necessary support to turn the company around for good. Worthy of mention is the bailout provided by the Governor to pay salaries to some companies of Harmony Holdings including Kwara Express during the lockdown induced by the COVID -19 pandemic in spite of the fact that workers did not work for a period in excess of three months,” he said.

He also said that report of the Committee set up to review and investigate activities of the Kwara Express will determine the future of the company positively.

He urged the workers to eschew their age-long resistance to change and reforms in the company, saying that lack of accountability which their disposition reinforced, had discouraged growth and development of the company.

“We can no longer allow the actions and inactions of less than 200 people to continue to deprive over three million Kwarans of the benefit of having an excellently run state-owned transport company,” he said. (Saturday Tribune)