Parliament’s chief financial officer, Harry Charlton, has been abruptly suspended from his post, causing bewilderment and suspicion among parliamentary staff, members of Parliament, and opposition parties.
Sources at the legislature say Zingile Dingani, the secretary to Parliament, called Charlton, who set in motion the investigation of ”Travelgate” abuses by MPs and travel agencies, to a meeting at 4pm last Friday.
After the meeting Charlton was immediately escorted off the premises, and when the Mail & Guardian visited his office this week police guards were rotating shifts outside the door.
Lionel Klaasen, who heads the institutional support division of the parliamentary service, has replaced Charlton on an acting basis.
No detailed reasons have been provided by Parliament for moving against Charlton, or for doing it in a fashion that suggests evidence needs to be protected from interference, but Dingani has said there are ”serious allegations” against him.
Some in Parliament, and other sources sympathetic to Charlton, say they cannot believe that. He has been under intense political pressure, they argue, over his role in exposing the R24-million travel voucher scam, which has caused serious embarrassment to Parliament and individual politicians. Twenty-one MPs are currently facing charges over the affair, and liquidation proceedings against the travel agents are in full swing.
Charlton was the first to reveal to the then speaker, Frene Ginwala, and then secretary of Parliament Sindiso Mfenyana that members and travel agents appeared to be ripping off the legislature, and he led the initial investigation that resulted in the National Prosecuting Authority being brought in.
Charlton’s backers believe the suddenness of the suspension, the way he was ”frogmarched” out of Parliament, the apparent leaking of the news, and the fact that at least one of the accused travel agents was informed almost immediately, indicate a campaign to discredit him.
”He was saying three or four months ago that he felt he was being targeted,” says one person who has regular dealings with him.
Sources also say Charlton’s team had recently uncovered evidence that the scam, which cost Parliament an estimated R24-million, went further than originally thought.
Democratic Alliance chief whip Douglas Gibson cast suspicion on the allegations: ”I have every confidence in Harry Charlton and believe that he served Parliament faithfully and well. He, above all others, sought to ensure that the Travelgate scandal was not covered up. I suspect that he is paying the price for it,” Gibson said in a statement.
Neither Charlton nor Dingani was available for comment by the time the M&G went to press.