Acsa board cleaning house

A senior advocate has found “widespread corruption by some of Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) management and senior staff and its CEO Bongani Maseko”. William Mokhari SC was appointed by Acsa's board to give legal opinion on whether grounds to charge Maseko and other senior officials exist, following adverse findings against them by an audit firm. Mokhari recommended that Maseko and other senior managers to be suspended. This week, Acsa's board said it had concluded an internal investigation following “supply chain management irregularities. The board stated its decision to institute disciplinary action against several employees. “All the appropriate processes are being followed in this regard.” The Sunday Independent understands that Maseko was among officials who received a notice of suspension. Maseko declined to comment and referred all the questions to Acsa.

Dr VS Mncube Consulting conducted investigated allegations of irregularities and corruption by Acsa's supply chain management. The audit firm's explosive report said several executives had contravened the Public Management Finance Act (PMFA) and should face disciplinary action. Maseko is accused of failing to take disciplinary action against staff members who failed to comply with the PFMA. The board also sought legal opinion from Advocate FR Memani who said: “From a practical point of view we advise that the CEO should be suspended as soon as possible and an acting CEO be appointed [promptly]”. Mokhari also recommended that Maseko be suspended with several senior managers whose names are known to The Sunday Independent. The report states that during November 2012 when Maseko was acting CEO, he obtained two opinions regarding possible misconduct with the City Lodge tender.

According to the forensic report, Acsa's executive committee ratified, in 2008, City Lodge's tender worth R33 million despite irregularities which had been queried.Despite the bid documents being submitted late, City Lodge did not achieve the 50 points BBBEE scorecard as required, and five copies of its bid document prior were submitted late. City Lodge's failure to meet the BBBEE requirements was overlooked despite the failure to meet a similar criteria from ORION Hotel Group and Protea Hotel Empowerment Group. Maseko is also accused of failing to “comply with your duty as Acting CEO, or as CEO to report to national treasury a... tender board the irregularities that were divulged by Deloitte and thereby contravened ... ACSA Procurement Policy.” The controversy of a tender to operate a bookshop was also investigated. In 2013, service providers were invited to bid, and the tender was interestingly awarded to a company that was incorporated two days before Acsa issued the tender.

It was awarded to Amger and Exclusive Books on a five-year contract. However, when the contract came to an end, both companies reached an agreement with Acsa for a month-to-month lease until another tender had been issued. When the tender was awarded only to Amger, Exclusive Books approached the High Court, alleging that it was unlawful. In 2015, Acsa tried to evict Exclusive Books from the premises. When Exclusive Books won the court battle, Acsa approached the Supreme Court of Appeal and lost again. An investigation uncovered that Amger's tax clearance certificate had been issued on January 10, 2014, while its B-BBEE certificate was also issued in January 2014 when the closing date for the bid was January 31. It discovered that Sars did not have any records of their tax clearance certificate. The report found Maseko and another official authorised the unlawful eviction of Exclusive Books from rented premises; causing Acsa reputational damage. Fruitless and wasteful expenditure relating to legal costs were also incurred, according to the findings.

By so doing, Maseko acted in a manner unbecoming of an Acsa CEO, the investigation noted. Exclusive Books had concluded a five-year lease agreement following a tender process which was scheduled to run until 31 August 2013. The report also found that between 2010 and 2012, Maseko engaged the services of Deloitte and Touche (which later became Deloitte) to audit various tender irregularities at Acsa, including irregularities relating to the City Lodge tender. “In spite of the fact that irregularities were found by Deloitte and notwithstanding the fact that you were the CEO or the Acting CEO at all material times, you failed to take disciplinary steps or cause the taking of disciplinary steps against any persons who were liable to be disciplined ...” This, according to the board, caused the expenditure incurred “in respect of services which were rendered by Deloitte to be in vain.” Memani recommended that both Amger and City Lodge tenders be set aside.