*Kwara Express shutdown because of fraud- Management*

_Says there's ongoing review and investigation_

The management of Harmony Transport Services Limited (Kwara Express) has said that the transport company was temporarily shutdown because of fraud and gross indicipline by the staff.

The management also noted that, there's ongoing efforts to review and investigate the company with the aim of remodeling it for profitability and sustainability.

In a statement by the holding company of Kwara Express, the Group Managing Director of Harmony Holdings Limited, Mr Abdullahi AbdulMajeed stated that, Kwara Express is one of the companies owned by Harmony Holdings Limited and the company has been temporarily shutdown because of systematic fraud being perpetrated by staff of the company over the years and their stiff resistance to positive change.

According to the GMD, the systemic fraud being perpetrated by 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 Kwara state government. He observed that despite its being transformed from a public corporation to a private limited liability company, the same challenge is still confronting the company which is occasioned largely by lack of corporate governance, accountability, ineffective cost structure and gross indicipline of staff , which is now being investigated.

Abdullahi AbdulMajeed explained that, in this period of covid 19 pandemic, when resources are scarce and 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, adding that the government of Mallam Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq has given Harmony Holdings all necessary support to turn the company around for good. Worthy of mention is the bail out provided by His Excellency, the Executive Governor to pay salaries to some companies of Harmony Holdings including Kwara Express during the lock down induced by the Covid -19 pandemic inspite of the fact that workers did not work for a period in excess of three months.

He therefore assured that the report of the Committee set up to review and investigate Kwara Express's activities 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 adding that lack of transparency, accountability and productivity which their disposition reinforces has been the binding constraint to the growth and development of the company. He stressed the fact that we can no longer allow the actions and inactions of less than 200 people to continue to deprive over 3 million Kwarans of the benefit of having an excellently run state owned transport company.

Abdullahi AbdulMajeed
Group Managing Director
Harmony Holdings Limited