Fenaka Corporation Limited has submitted a request to the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) seeking to clear the criminal records of over 3,900 of its employees. It marks the first instance in the history of the country where a state-owned enterprise (SOE) has sought to clear such a high number of criminal records at one time.
During the transfer of government, the transitional committee had reported that the previous government had engaged in significant hiring of employees in Fenaka for political purposes. It was also revealed that a substantial number of individuals were recruited in various other SOEs for political motives.
Fenaka had approximately 2,600 employees in 2018. However, the previous administration hired more than 4,000 additional employees, including temporary staff during the government transition. The new Fenaka management observed that some hires were made in violation of the Employment Act, with certain employees having uncleared criminal records.
The PGO stated that, while such requests submitted online are resolved within a day, the large number of criminal records submitted at one time by an SOE has caused the process to stall. Annually, the PGO processes around 13,000 criminal record forms. However, the PGO received 3,930 forms on November 11, which constituted 30% of the anticipated yearly volume. Of these, 3,419 forms were cleared after the staff worked overnight. The PGO has since instituted a policy where record clearance will only occur during official working hours. However, the PGO intends to resume providing daily criminal record clearance services once the forms are validated.