Robert Kabushenga, the outgoing Vision Group Managing Director/CEO
The Board of Directors of New Vision Printing and Publishing Company Limited has announced to Shareholders, Potential Investors, and the General Public that based on the preliminary assessment of the Company’s performance, the results of the Company’s earnings for the Half Year 2020/21 will be a loss position.
In a statement signed off by Robert Kabushenga, the Vision Group Managing Director/CEO, who was recently forced into early retirement, the Company says the main contributor to this performance is the increase in Bad Debts Provision for business contracted in prior years and required to be provided for in the current period under the International Financial Reporting Standard 9 (IFRS9) Expected Credit Loss Model.
“The Board and Management are committed to ensuring improved financial performance of the company,” Kabushenga said.
The statement was issued pursuant to Rule 40 (1) of USE Listing Rules 2003.
According to New Vision Financial Results for the year ended June 30th 2020, the Company’s Profit after tax was Shs2.7 billion compared to Shs2.1 billion in 2019.
Kabushenga will be quitting New Vision after serving the Company for over a decade.
In an email to staff on January 29, 2021, Kabushenga explained his decision, which he said the board had agreed to.
“This is to let you know that for personal reasons I have asked the Board for an early retirement and this has been accepted,” he wrote.
Kabushenga explained that he will oversee a 90-day transition, as requested by the Board, before moving on.
“I am proud of the success we achieved and the impact we have had in society. This was possible because we worked together as a team. For me, it was an absolute honor and pleasure to have done so,” he explained.
However, several reports indicate that Kabushenga was forced out.
According to the Observer, Kabushenga’s tenure at New Vision has been far from smooth since he took over in acrimonious circumstances in 2007 after government forced out William Pike, his predecessor.
He has survived several attempts to uproot him, particularly in 2015 when several members of cabinet accused him of clandestinely working with former prime minister Amama Mbabazi after the latter fell out with President Museveni.
It took the intervention of his close allies minister David Bahati and Asuman Kiyingi to persuade President Museveni not to swing the axe. Later that year when the New Vision salary structure leaked to the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase), exposing the lion’s share of the wages the few top bosses were earning, Kabushenga was able to quell the discontent amongst employees.
But over the last few years, he had become increasingly vulnerable, especially after some members of the board recommended his sacking on grounds of expanding the Vision Group with amorphous entities that made losses. According to our sources, those against Kabushenga had lined up Simon Kaheru, a renowned media consultant with close ties to the state, to take over but the move aborted when the latter was appointed to head the UBC board.
According to sources at State House, President Museveni, who had already been briefed about Kabushenga’s close association with the Democratic Governance Facility – a multi-donor establishment that was portrayed as working with the opposition – ordered Ayota to immediately fire Kabushenga to restore sanity at Vision Group, The Observer reports.
