Former Cricket South Africa (CSA) chief operations officer Don McIntosh was on Thursday grilled about bonuses in the ministerial inquiry into CSA’s affairs.
Judge Chris Nicholson, who leads the committee, questioned McIntosh extensively over R1.7-million tournament bonuses he was paid for the successful running of the Indian Premier League and the ICC Champions Trophy.
McIntosh’s non-disclosure of the bonus to CSA’s remuneration committee (Remco), while he negotiated a performance bonus of a similar amount, came under the spotlight.
His appearance before the committee lasted about two-and-a-half hours. In his submission to the committee, he justified his non-disclosure by shifting the responsibility to CSA CEO Gerald Majola.
“I deal with Gerald as my superior from a performance bonus point of view, from an event bonus point of view, in terms of disclosure I disclosed everything to Gerald,” McIntosh said.
“My motivation wasn’t related to the event bonus, I didn’t mention the event bonus because that is a separate matter and what you take as your motivation for your performance bonus.”
McIntosh said he never sat with the remuneration committee to go through his performance.
‘More evidence’
“Part of that review you don’t deal with events and obviously I am going through it with the guy who signed off my event bonus and so that is even more evidence, I suppose, that you can’t conceal it. It is not a matter of being secretive about it; it is just dealing with the performance bonus.”
McIntosh said the event incentives were no secret,
“Essentially the buck stops with Gerald from my perspective. As long as Gerald is aware of my situation and I disclosed to Gerald, that is where I kind of stop,” he said.
“From my side, and I don’t believe from Gerald’s side there was nothing secret, there is no intention to hide things or understate things.”
Nicholson asked McIntosh whether he did not feel guilty negotiating the bonus with Majola and at the same time not disclosing it to the remuneration committee.
“The bonuses to my mind were authorised by my CEO, as simple as that,” McIntosh said.
“In terms of feeling that I should have disclosed it to Remco, with respect, I was never given the opportunity to discuss either event bonuses or even my own normal performance bonuses with Remco.” — Sapa