Mungo Soggot
MINERAL and Energy Affairs Minister Penuell Maduna still has to inform the auditor general why he publicly ousted his top oil official. His reticence is fuelling fears that an expensive four-month probe has found no evidence against the official, Kobus van Zyl.
The auditor general’s office said this week that Maduna’s investigating team had so far failed to show any of the findings which the minister used to justify Van Zyl’s suspension. The information the investigating team has sought from the auditor general also does not directly relate to the alleged irregular contracts which cost Van Zyl his job.
“We are still in the dark,” said Deputy Auditor General Professor Bertie Loots.
Van Zyl, suspended in March, has also not been given the full reasons for his suspension – despite requests by his labour lawyers – nor a copy of the probe’s preliminary findings.
Maduna recruited auditing firm Ntsaluba Nkonki Sizwe in February to probe the accounts of the Strategic Fuel Fund, the oil-trading arm led by Van Zyl which spearheaded the former government’s efforts to beat the oil boycott.
It is understood the auditing firm was given a flat R1-million fee for its work. The auditor general, whose office audits all state oil accounts, was not consulted prior to the appointment.
Four weeks into the investigation Maduna suspended Van Zyl on “probable cause”. Ntsaluba Nkonki Sizwe’s preliminary findings had focused on two 1992 contracts to buy oil from Egypt.
However, the ministry conceded it had no evidence that Van Zyl had personally benefited from such deals.
Ntsaluba Nkonki Sizwe’s probe also did not question Danie Vorster, Van Zyl’s superior in 1992, before offering its first findings to Maduna. Vorster, and other former state oil officials, have now been contacted. Questions put to them have led to suspicions that the probe has shifted its focus away from Egypt.
Loots said the auditor general’s office had protested at being excluded from the investigation, and that the results of the probe would probably go before the parliamentary public accounts committee. He has sent copies of all his correspondence with Maduna about the issue to the committee.
The auditor general’s office has also been alarmed by criticism from Maduna’s adviser, Walter Gcabashe, that its efforts to audit the fuel fund, helped by the private accounting firm Price Waterhouse, had been sub-standard.
The auditor general is understood to be awaiting the outcome of the probe before taking the matter further. Section 181 (3) of the Constitution says organs of state must assist and protect the auditor general’s office to ensure its independence, impartiality, dignity and effectiveness.
Ntsaluba Nkonki Size has been forbidden from talking to the press. Maduna did not respond to faxed questions and Gcabashe is overseas.