Independent auditors have been called in to examine the Educational Opportunities Council’s accounts, following reports of mismanagement, writes Andy Duffy
ONE of the country’s top funding organisations for students has been hit by allegations of mismanagement, with its chief accused of lending donors’ cash to her closest friend.
The Educational Opportunities Council, which channels about R6-million a year – most from USAid – to students, has already called in independent auditors to investigate its accounts.
Its board of trustees, which includes Truth and Reconciliation Commission chair Desmond Tutu and top businessman Nthato Motlana, has also been summoned to an emergency meeting to investigate allegations laid by disgruntled middle managers.
The allegations centre on R180 000 the non- governmental organisation (NGO) transferred late last year from a bank account established for donations from United States group Kellogg into a separate administration account.
The cash was spent on a new car due to executive director Eleanor Molefe and a near R68 000 loan to her friend and the council’s personnel manager, Puleng Zulu.
Board of trustees chairman Hazel Moolman said on Thursday preliminary investigations last weekend by auditor Ernst & Young suggested the switch in funds between accounts was above board, and done at the suggestion of its banker, First National Bank. Sources in the NGO’s finance department deny this.
But Moolman added Molefe had circumvented internal procedures to give Zulu the loan, and had failed to seek permission from the trustees. The NGO has a floating housing loan account of R50 000, and offers short term loans to employees for emergency expenditure such as hospital bills. Zulu spent the money on a new car. Moolman said Zulu was repaying the loan, and paying interest on it.
Moolman said she remained confident of Molefe’s integrity – she has been with the organisation for several years, and took over as executive director in 1995.
But the board of trustees would be questioning her over the loan, and other staff allegations against her management.
“Molefe will be chastised,” Moolman said. “To say there is a clique within the council is going a bit far. But obviously staff have grievances and we have to look at that.”
Molefe declined to comment, saying board members had instructed her on Wednesday to stay silent pending further inquiries.
But several staff members, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Mail & Guardian there were serious concerns about the NGO’s high turnover of staff, recruitment practices and financial controls. It has been without a finance manager since the departure of Kenneth Ndeve in November, just before the R180 000 was transferred. Moolman says the NGO is still searching for a suitable replacement, and that management consultants are standing in.
The NGO, established in 1977, has provided bursaries for thousands of students for study in South Africa and overseas. Moolman says there have never been questions raised previously about its financial controls.
But the timing of the row is poor. Plans to increase tertiary education opportunities are being hampered by lower government subsidies to the sector, which is prompting institutions to slash funding to poorer students.