THE PERFORMANCE REPORT THAT LEAVES OUT THE PERFORMANCE

By Paul L. Kebaija

Somewhere in the National Airports Corporation's budget there was enough money for seven pages of full-colour advertising in The National. Not for an audited financial statement. For a supplement.

Read it closely, though, and Chairman Jacob Anga has done the public a service. Not the one he intended.

One: NAC still has no Managing Director.

Buried near the end, Mr Anga extends the Board's appreciation to "our Acting Managing Director, Mr Dominic Kaumu." Acting. Nine months after this Board took office, the country's aviation infrastructure entity is still being run by a temporary appointment.

That word is doing enormous work, because on 2 March 2026 NAC advertised the MD/CEO position through Vanguard International, and on 4 March — two days later — the same recruiter published a notice withdrawing it on the Board's instruction. The public was told to disregard it. No reason was given then. And in seven pages devoted to the Board's own performance, no reason is given now.

A Chairman who writes that his Board wants to "be upfront about the challenges, because the public deserves a straight picture from us, not a polished one" has just published a polished one with the largest hole in it left unmentioned. Who instructed the withdrawal? Under which Board resolution? Who is being lined up for the position the public was told to stop applying for?

Two: the numbers are unaudited, and he says so.

Mr Anga writes that the Board has pushed hard on "clearing our audit backlog and restoring proper financial reporting," and concedes NAC is "not yet where we need to be." One paragraph later he asserts that NAC closed 2025 with revenue above budget and a healthier cash position than it has had in years.

Both cannot carry equal weight. Figures drawn from accounts that have not cleared audit are management's claim about itself, not a verified result. If the audit backlog is genuinely being cleared, the remedy is simple: publish the audited statements and the Auditor-General's management letters. Until then, "revenue above budget" is a line in an advertisement.

Three: K4.2 billion is now moving through a board with no permanent chief executive.

The supplement puts close to K4.2 billion in planned investment on the table, anchored by a K3.32 billion Jacksons redevelopment and CADIP III. Mr Anga tells us the Board has re-established its sub-committees for audit and risk, governance and remuneration, and tenders and procurement, and that "proper oversight sits behind every major decision NAC makes."

Good. Then prove it where it counts. Publish every contract awarded since late 2025 — contractor, value, method of award, evaluation outcome. Publish the Board's register of members' interests. Confirm whether any company in which a director or the Chairman holds an interest has tendered for or been awarded NAC work, and whether that member left the room.

Mr Anga is publicly listed as Chief Executive Officer and Director of JRA Limited, and served inside NAC as Project Director, Head of Audit and General Manager Finance and Strategic Business before chairing it. That combination doesn't make him guilty of anything. It makes disclosure non-optional.

Four: the constitutional review nobody has seen.

The Board has "begun a constitutional review to bring our governance in line with international best practice." A state entity rewriting its own constitution while its chief executive post sits vacant and its accounts sit unaudited is not a footnote. What clauses are changing? Who drafted them? Has the shareholder, the Ministers for Treasury and Finance, and for Civil Aviation, signed off?

Five: operational excellence, as experienced at Jacksons.

One of the four pillars is operational excellence and putting customers first. At Jacksons this year, the Climate Change and Development Authority's K50 green fee, collected in cash at NAC's flagship terminal, had to be suspended after more than K185,000 went missing and a security contractor was charged. Not NAC's levy. NAC's airport. A performance report that reaches 2033 and never reaches the departure hall has its telescope pointed the wrong way.

Mr Anga calls this the Year of Implementation. Implement this: name the MD, publish the audits, publish the contracts, publish the interests.