A headhunting firm owned by the sister of the Independent Electoral Commission’s (IEC)director of human resources earned more than R300 000 in commission for placing nine employees at the organisation.
Career Visions, a closed corporation owned by Ntombizanele Sithebe, the sister of the IEC’s director of human resources, Sibongile Sithebe, was appointed after a R15-million tender for IEC staff recruitment was awarded to Executive Placements — owned by Deloitte & Touche.
The IEC’s CEO, Professor Mandla Mchunu, said he is aware of the relationship between the two women and that there was nothing to hide. Executive Placements passed a gruelling selection process before being awarded the tender, but most of the vacant positions in the IEC have been filled by candidates who were recruited by other personnel agencies — one of them being Career Visions.
Career Visions boasts that it had been responsible for the recruitment and placement Sibongile Sithebe — but she was directly appointed by deputy CEO Glen Mashinini as a human resources consultant. Sibongile Sithebe referred all inquiries about placements at the IEC to its representative Victor Dlamini.
Explaining the appointment of more than one headhunting firm, Mchunu was only prepared to say that the tender was awarded to Deloitte & Touche on a “non- exclusive basis” and that it was subject to performance. Deloitte & Touche refused to comment. The company was paid a retainer of R5-million and placed very few recruits with the IEC.
Mashinini said only five out of the 81 candidates submitted by Deloitte & Touche were suitable for appointment. Mchunu said the IEC could not elaborate on Deloitte & Touche’s performance because of its contract with the firm. The IEC was not prepared to reveal the names of companies which made the shortlist before the tender was awarded to Deloitte & Touche.
It said only parties involved in the tender process could have access to such information and that a prerequisite was the payment of a fee. But only one of the companies on the shortlist was used when the Deloitte & Touche candidates proved unsuitable. Some of the companies that were used had not even tendered for the original contract.
The IEC’s budget for recruitment and placement is about R15-million but says information on vacancies filled by outside agencies is “not readily available”. Up to January 1999, R4 824-million had been spent on placement fees.
Career Visions received 15% commission on the salaries of the people they placed with the IEC. At a total of R320 000 for nine placements, it appears that the average salary of their recruits is around R230 000 a year — possibly all are employed in senior positions. Besides the human resources director, Career Visions also placed Gauteng provincial electoral officer Terry Tselane.
The IEC’s financial manager, Deon du Plooy, said Sibongile Sithebe personally brought her relationship with Career Visions to the attention of the IEC. A forensic audit was performed last October and cleared her of any wrongdoing. Du Plooy did not explain why the forensic audit had to be performed if the information was voluntarily submitted by Sibongile Sithebe.
It was Deloitte & Touche which disclosed Sibongile Sithebe’s relationship with Career Visions to senior people at the IEC. But, instead of reprimanding her, her job description changed from consultant to director of human resources.
The Office of the Auditor General said it was not aware of any forensic audit which had been performed at the IEC and that the last audit was done in March 1996. According to the Tender Board, any person who submits a tender to a government organisation must reveal any relationship with a person already employed by the organisation.