/ 28 May 1997

Baqwa asked to probe IBA with view to prosecution

WEDNESDAY, 2.30PM

PARLIAMENT’S finance committee on Wednesday recommended that Public Protector Selby Baqwa investigate financial irregulairites in the Independent Broadcasting Authority with a view to possible prosecutions.

In its report on the auditor general’s special investigation of the IBA, the committee added that hotel costs and daily allowances paid to councillors when they stayed in Johannesburg, where they lived, should be recovered. The report also suggests that all costs, including interest, related to expenses incurred through private misuse of corporate credit cards should be recovered, along with duplicate payments of allowances, double payments to creditors, overdue accounts and staff loans.

The report lauded IBA staffers for the constructive and responsible role they played in exposing financial mismanagement, saying it is of utmost importance that the IBA and its councillors be seen to be of unquestionable integrity.