Evidence suggesting continuing high-level corruption and mismanagement at the Road Accident Fund (RAF) has emerged from a forensic investigation into the activities of three senior managers.
Chief information officer Sello Mokale, a former acting CEO of the State Information Technology Agency, and forensic services manager Dennis Beea, a former head of the National Intelligence Agency in Gauteng, were suspended in the middle of last year after claims of corruption.
Gobodo Forensic Accounting was appointed to investigate the allegations against the two. It also uncovered evidence leading to the suspension of Dan Mokgwetsi, manager of information technology security.
A confidential draft report was submitted to RAF chairman Kessie Naidu last August. Nearly a year later disciplinary action against Mokale and Mokgwetsi has still not been determined.
Beea was charged with only the most flimsy of three charges recommended against him, raising questions about the disciplinary process. He was found not guilty last week, but placed on special leave pending a decision about his future. The RAF board has been asked to review the judgement and make a decision on his reinstatement.
All three men have continued to receive their pay, ranging from about R40 000 to R60 000 a month.
The perceived failure of the RAF management to deal effectively and timeously with disciplinary action against the three prompted sources close to the probe to share details of the report’s findings.
The saga began with a meeting at Johannesburg International airport between the RAF’s CEO, Humphrey Kgomongwe, and representatives of a company called Strategic Recovery Holdings (SRH).
SRH, a private investigation company doing work for the fund, told Kgomongwe it had provided Mokale with a BMW for which he had not paid. SRH also alleged it had a video of a conversation with Beea about work it was trying to secure during which Beea had allegedly asked, “What is in it for me?”
Kgomongwe immediately went on holiday, appointing the BMW beneficiary, Mokale, as acting CEO to deal with Beea. Mokale suspended Beea on June 20 last year. It later emerged that on the same day he had suddenly settled his debt for the BMW, by transferring R50 000 in cash to Clinton Nassif, a director of SRH.
Rumours about the BMW had been circulating and four days later Mokale was called to an RAF board meeting to explain how he had obtained the vehicle.
He was also suspended.
Mokale told the board he had paid R34 000 when he received the vehicle. After the Gobodo investigation started, he produced a supposed receipt for the first payment.
Sources at Gobodo said this document made no reference to the registration of the vehicle or to the amount paid, and that the date and other details appeared to have been altered.
Mokale was unable to show how he had financed the R34 000 except to claim that part came from gambling winnings. The BMW was not registered in Mokale’s name.
During this period the RAF obtained a security review and surveillance system from SRH for which it paid R250 000. The fund later claimed a similar system could have been obtained for R75 000.
Among other things, Mokale has been charged with obtaining a vehicle by improper means from an RAF service provider.
Thulani Makubela, RAF’s employee relations manager, told the Mail & Guardian that the delays in completing Mokale’s case were due to “certain discussions” that had been taking place between Mokale’s attorneys and the fund. The hearing was tentatively set to begin on April 15.
SRH had apparently refused to supply the tape that supposedly was made of its meeting with Beea. The company appears to have since been placed in liquidation.
Despite the lack of evidence, Beea allegedly conceded to having had a discussion with SRH about contracts that would be awarded to it in return for a benefit to himself. But Beea claimed that this was part of an investigation into SRH and that he was merely playing along to find out what the company wanted.
He claimed his CEO, Kgomongwe, knew of the meeting and had approved it. Kgomongwe denied this.
Further investigations by Gobodo allegedly established that Beea had not formally disposed of his shares in another company, Ikanyeng, which continued providing services to the RAF after he joined the fund in February 2002. He was also alleged to have ignored an instruction from the RAF chairman not to award more work to Ikanyeng pending a review of contracts with investigation companies.
The fund’s legal advisers had recommended that charges laid against Beea should include these two matters, but he was apparently charged only with signing contracts on behalf of the CEO without his authority. He was found not guilty on this count.
Makubela said later investigations had indicated Beea had disposed of his shares and so there was no failure to disclose his interest. This appears to contradict information given to Gobodo by an Ikanyeng director.
Makubela said charges against Beea were restricted to those where there was prima facie evidence and that the allegation relating to his meeting with SRH would have been “very difficult to prove”. “We didn’t want to be seen to be going on a witch-hunt,” he said.
Mokgwetsi was suspended over an R817 000 tender awarded to a company called Mach Technology, of which his son was a director.
He denies being involved with the tender evaluations, but members of the selection panel told Gobodo he had attended presentations without disclosing that his son was involved.
Judgement in this case is due next week.