Alan Gray, chief executive of the Mpumalanga Parks Board who led the controversial Dolphin natures reserves deal, has wide business interests in the area, reports Justin Arenstein
THE man who led Mpumalanga Parks Board into a controversial nature reserve deal with the Dubai-based Dolphin Group owns companies that hold lucrative contracts with the parks board.
It also emerged this week that Alan Gray’s attempts to use an alleged letter from Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi to vindicate Dolphin’s Kenyan owner has prompted a full blown investigation by Kenyan authorities who deny the letter’s existence. Gray has failed to co-operate with the probe.
Gray, the parks board’s chief executive, operates tourism, transport and medical companies in the province, all of which enjoy the parks board’s patronage. Gray is also a consultant to the state-owned board, commanding a private sector salary allegedly worth around R50 000 a month.
Banking group Absa told the Mail & Guardian this week that it is investigating Gray in connection with the transfer of funds between various bank accounts and the depositing of cheques.
Gray brokered the deal with Dolphin last November, handing the company a commercial monopoly over Mpumalanga’s key tourism attractions, including the Blyde River Canyon, various state-owned game reserves and Pilgrims Rest. The deal – in which Dolphin would bankroll the parks board in exchange for exclusive rights over the sites for the next 50 years – was revised last week following a public outcry.
Gray declined to specify his salary this week. The province’s environmental affairs MEC David Mkhwanazi, however, said Gray’s pay was based on what a private sector managing director, who controlled a company with an asset base equivalent to the board, would earn, plus a performance-related element.
The M&G found that all parks board employees are contractually obliged to take out membership with Gray’s medical rescue company, Life Crisis.
Gray said this week that the board had employed the company without following normal tendering procedures, but that he had recused himself from that decision.
Gray’s company took over the contract last year after Lowveld Helicopter Services (LHS) – in which Gray owns a large stake – brought an urgent liquidation order against Life Crisis’s predecessor, snapping up its assets just before the order was served.
LHS holds the majority of the parks board’s aerial game counting, darting and capture contracts. Most other provincial government departments, including Mkhwanazi’s department and Premier Mathews Phosa’s office also extensively use LHS, without tender procedures being followed.
LHS contracts have included “flips” around the province for the now-disgraced former government consultant, Eugene Nyati, trips by Phosa and colleagues, as well as sightseeing tours by Dolphin executives. LHS also flew a parks board and legislative delegation to Cape Town two weeks ago in a King Air fixed-wing plane. It provided a helicopter to M-Net’s Carte Blanche while they filmed an insert on the Dolphin deal.
Gray refused to say how much the board had spent with LHS, insisting such information could be demanded only by the provincial legislature.
This week, however, LHS staff suddenly stopped using the company’s name when answering the phone, and instead welcomed callers to “Air Excellence”. Staff said all LHS assets, staff, contracts and helicopters had been transferred to Air Excellence.
Gray also refused to comment on an alleged R3,5-million breach of contract lawsuit against LHS and against him by Russian- registered helicopter company TyvmenAviaTrans. Regional TyvmenAviaTrans manager Andre Denasov said the company had entered a joint venture with LHS in 1993 but was still allegedly owed profits and staff expenses.
Other companies in which Gray has interests include: Helicopter Investment Services, Eastern Transvaal Ambulance Services, Emergency Vehicle Hire Services, Corridor Management Services, Eagle Helicopters and Zambian Tours.
The row with the Kenyans was sparked last month after Gray insisted that he had a letter from Arap Moi clearing the Dolphin president, Ketan Somaia, of any dubious business dealings or other scandals in Kenya.
He has since refused to make copies of the letter public, or take calls from Kenya’s High Commissioner in South Africa, Justice Mudavadi.
The existence of the letter, which allegedly clears Somaia of all wrongdoing in a R35-million security equipment tender, has been repeatedly denied by Arap Moi’s office.
“We do not care about the contract or the deal,” Mudavadi says. “But the use of our president’s name is serious. Despite phoning Gray numerous times over the past three weeks, “I have failed to speak to him or even get past his secretary – instead I am always told he is out or in meetings.”
The possibility that Gray had been given a fraudulent letter, signed in the name of the president and clearing Somaia, had been considered, Kenyan authorities said.
Gray has previously insisted that he cannot make the letter public until he receives counsel from his and Somaia’s legal advisors. He again refused to respond to questions about the letter this week.