A sheriff of the court is ready to confiscate goods to the value of R660 000 from rugby boss Brian van Rooyen, the Witness website reported on Monday.
It said this comes after Labat Africa, run by Van Rooyen, broke an agreement with international auditing firm KPMG over the payment of outstanding monies for a government tender. The tender was allocated 10 years ago.
The matter has so far been kept out of the public eye because of a secrecy clause agreed to by both parties.
The warrant for the confiscation of Labat’s assets follows a legal battle of eight years between Labat and KPMG, said the Witness.
This would add to the woes of Van Rooyen’s ailing company, whose shares were suspended for a while earlier this year.
Labat, KPMG and two other companies formed a consulting company in 1996 in order to tender for a Department of Public Works contract.
The tender was for the transformation of this department and amounted to nearly R4,5-million.
Their application was successful and the tender was allocated on December 24 1996 in the name of Anderson-Labat.
This company’s name was later changed to Labat SA and the business operations were later bought over by Labat Africa, the present name of Van Rooyen’s company.
On January 31 1997, KPMG and Labat signed a contract that stipulated who would be responsible for the different aspects of the public-works tender and how each would be paid.
The income, for instance, would have been split 50-50 between Labat and KPMG.
Later in 1997, Van Rooyen requested KPMG to become Labat’s ”strategic partner” because Labat had insufficient capital and resources.
KPMG refused, despite Van Rooyen’s assurances that Labat enjoyed high standing with the government.
In 1998, KPMG referred the case to its attorneys after it had battled in vain to get its share of the income generated by the public-works contract from Labat.
On March 24 1999, Labat was issued a summons in which KPMG claimed R1,6-million for unpaid services.
Several sets of correspondence between Labat and KPMG followed, with allegations that KPMG actually owed money to Labat and that black economic empowerment at KPMG was mere lip service.
Meanwhile, David O’Neill, who negotiated the contract for KPMG, resigned and started working for Van Rooyen.
On November 13 2002, the two parties went to court over Labat’s allegation that the claimant (KPMG Management Consulting) was not the same partner with which it had signed the contract.
Judge Lewis Goldblatt ruled in favour of KPMG, ordering Labat to pay the costs.
After more negotiations, the two parties reached an agreement on October 11 2004 that Labat would pay KPMG R2,2-million in 10 instalments.
In May this year, the payments stopped and KPMG brought an application before the court that the outstanding R660 000 plus interest be paid immediately.
A warrant for the confiscation of Labat’s assets was issued to the sheriff of Roodepoort on August 19, but according to the sheriff he had still not received the order by KPMG to serve the warrant.
The parties have apparently reached another agreement, but Danie van Heerden, an executive partner of KPMG, didn’t want to expand as it is ”a confidential matter”.
Van Rooyen was not available for comment. — Sapa