By Mulengera Reporters
Banking is one cautious practice that is shrouded in extreme secrecy and conventionalism. Yet the Equity Group has always distinguished itself to be different when it comes to sticking to certain norms and conventional wisdom.
Indeed, the Equity Bank top executives have over the years distinguished themselves to be always willing to overlook conventional wisdom by deliberately setting out to do things differently.
The need for caution, which is globally the accepted way to go about banking, is based on the wisdom that banking is very sensitive to the extent that a small departure from the accepted way of doing things can impact not just at one bank but for the whole industry.
For the executives at the Equity Group, all these industry-wide concerns have to be balanced with being customer-centered while at the same time strictly adhering to their institutional philosophy, principles and values which in the case of Equity Group rotate around integrity, professionalism, transparency and accountability.
Overlooking potential industry-wide concerns and reservations, the Equity Group recently opted to undertake staff auditing process aimed at identifying and getting rid of inadequately-behaved employees who had resorted to extortionist and unethical practices, including solicitation of tips from the Bank’s valued customers as inducement in return to be offered a would-be free service.
In some cases, the feedback from the Bank’s esteemed customers related to employees acting negligently and in the process costing both the customer and their employer.
According to Equity Group CEO Dr. James Mwangi, the different staff against whom complaints had been raised have had to be subjected to an audit and due process for their culpability to be transparently established in a manner that complies with the rules of natural justice. And roughly 200 employees were found culpable (in the case of Equity Bank Kenya) and these have since been relieved of their duties.
Mwangi a few days ago told the Kenyan media that the auditing process was important to clean up the Bank’s operations. He added that in the end, the Equity Group will become even stronger and be in a position to deliver even better and more predictable outcomes for the investors, shareholders and most importantly the millions of East Africans banking with them.
Dr. Mwangi also says that time came and the Equity Group leadership couldn’t continue to merely look on as complaints of employees extorting valued customers, while soliciting for tips and other material favors from them, persisted.
Something had to be done and the auditing intervention had to be effected in a manner that increases regulatory compliance while at the same time delivering win-win outcomes and service delivery improvements that are simultaneously beneficial to the investors and the Bank’s customers too.
This news website has established that now that Kenya is done, Uganda has had to be the next destination for the clean-up exercise. In the case of Uganda, several of Equity Bank employees have already been notified of the extortionist, rudeness and neglect claims that have been made against them. Much of this is feedback from customers who have been victims of either the negligent or extortionist acts by employees.
On Monday, all those affected (in their hundreds) were formally communicated to about the ongoing investigations and asked to show cause as to why their services at Equity Bank shouldn’t be terminated. A lot of the affected staffers have privately owned up and don’t intend to waste time writing to the staff conduct auditing committee explaining themselves against the misconduct allegations that have been levelled against them.
In Uganda, the rapidly-growing Equity Bank has a total of 50 branches and hundreds of employees or staff. Some of these have to answer to inappropriate conduct-related allegations relating to things like negligence and solicitation of tips from customers in order to render to them a would-be free service or even conniving with customers to deprive their employer.
At the conclusion of the auditing process, which knowledgeable industry insiders say is deliberately meant to be as transparently, fair and compliant with natural justice requirements as possible, those whose innocence is established will be spared and permitted to carry on with their jobs. This exactly is how it happened in Kenya, and employees in the Ugandan subsidiary are anticipating equally decent treatment.
Some staffers of Equity Bank Uganda have privately welcomed and accepted this ongoing audit investigations as consistent with their employer’s values of being transparent, accountable to the public and responsive to customer concerns. At the same time, it’s an opportunity for the employer to clean up so that ill-behaved employees can be gotten rid of.
This sort of thing happens very often, for instance in Kampala, but the public rarely gets to know about it because of the agreed secrecy under which the Banking business is practiced and conducted.
Even Uganda Bankers Association’s view is that if any their member bank is to effect any clean-up, targeting ill-mannered employees, the same should be effected in maximum secrecy ostensibly to guard against potential industry-wide anxiety and disruptions.
It seems that the Equity Group is determining to lead the way in departing from that conventional wisdom around this same issue. And the transparency, fairness and courtesy with which the staff audit investigation process has been effected explains why the situation, at for instance Equity Bank Uganda, has so far remained calm and chaos-free even when the same was proclaimed to the affected staff on Monday.
Knowledgeable industry sources say that the ongoing staff audit is inquiring into the conduct of affected staff stretching back to two years. Some staffers could have acted negligently while assessing a potential borrower’s suitability to take out a loan. Some could have acted rudely to a customer and management has CCTV footage to properly corroborate the alleged rudeness and unprofessionalism.
The Equity Bank management also believes that staff actions that could erode customer trust in the bank can be mitigated through the ongoing staff audit exercise. Reports in the Kenyan media further indicate that such staff auditing processes are going to become the culture and the way things are done under the Equity Group, as opposed to being a mere one off exercise.
Yet all said and done, the top management at Equity Bank Uganda risks being misunderstood by their contemporaries in the industry since the agreed UBA position is that whoever opts to terminate staff must do so cautiously and in total concealment yet the Equity Group CEO Dr. James Mwangi has departed from this accepted wisdom by being overtly outspoken and granting media interviews confirming and rationalizing the staff terminations that have been done at Equity Bank Kenya. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
