MONDAY, 3.30PM
AN ongoing forensic audit into financial management at the SA Tourism Board has led Pretoria police to open four separate investigations into fraud at Satour.
According to Michael Farr, leader of the special management team probing the parastatal, the forensic audit has so far uncovered inefficient management systems, a virtual absence of internal controls, lack of a proper business plan, and many instances of non-adherence to prescribed procedures in the procurement of services.
Farr said one of the frauds under investigation involved an amount of R307 000 misappropriated from Satour’s office in Paris, France, for which two staffers were fired last year. He said it is not yet possible to give figures involved in the other three frauds under investigation. He added that no one has been suspended pending the outcomes of the investigations, but that steps have been taken to limit or remove the authority of certain individuals handling financial matters.
Satour’s 14 other overseas offices have still to be investigated as part of the forensic audit.
Farr said that, since beginning the probe, he and his family had received death threats, which he regarded as an indication that his team is on the right track. “If what we have been saying has obviously created some sort of panic in somebody’s mind, that will certainly indicate that there is something worth looking for.”
The forensic audit is part of the special management team’s brief to come up with proposals for the transformation of Satour under its new board.