/ 19 September 2011

No foul play at Cricket SA

The final audit report from the investigation into Cricket SA’s (CSA) financial affairs confirmed that no money was missing from its coffers, CSA said on Monday.

KPMG’s final report, which was amended after the original draft report was first presented to the board of directors in July, covered the 2009 Indian Premier League (IPL) and the ICC Champions’ Trophy tournament, both of which were hosted and organised by CSA.

The CSA statement made no mention of the report’s reference to the unofficial bonuses paid to chief executive Gerald Majola and 40 CSA staff members, or to Majola’s possible breaches of the Companies’ Act.

The report quashed allegations that R68-million may have gone missing from CSA accounts.

“Allegations of an amount of R68m being missing from CSA’s accounts surfaced during our investigation,” KPMG said in its report.

“Although we were not mandated to investigate this aspect, we noted that the only transfer of monies which could have relevance in this regard was the above-mentioned transfer of an amount of R65 264 125 paid into the [Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)] bank account.

“The aforementioned bank account was confirmed to be that of BCCI.

“Therefore, we could not find any evidence to support the allegations that R68m was misappropriated from the CSA account arising from the IPL tournament.”

CSA said its president Mtutuzeli Nyoka had applied for an advance payment of his 2010/2011 honorarium in June 2010, which was paid by the then chief financial officer, Don McIntosh.

“This confirms that he did not approach either the then chairperson of Remco, Mr Paul Harris, or the board of directors for their consent as is required in terms of section 226 of the Companies’ Act,” it said. — Sapa