Auditor General Shauket Fakie has hit back at criticism by Parliament and the Cabinet that his report on the declaration of interests by ministers, deputy ministers and government employees was based solely on outdated company information.
The report, released by the auditor general’s office last Friday, revealed that 14 ministers and deputy ministers, and 1 678 provincial ministers and senior public service managers had not fully disclosed their financial interests in the 2003/04 financial year in accordance with the Executive Members Ethics Act and Public Service Regulations.
Parliament’s ethics committee this week all but rejected the report, arguing it was based on outdated information from the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (Cipro), a database of all registered companies and their directorships.
Committee chairperson Luwellyn Landers said he had instructed Fazela Mahomed, the Registrar of Members’ Interests in Parliament, to check the auditor general’s report against Parliament’s own declaration records. This revealed that “all the ministers and deputy ministers implicated in the auditor general’s report had resigned from their various business interests, making the auditor general’s report outdated.”
Landers said the ethics committee would table a report on Friday “which will tell us that nothing is wrong”.
“We have been saying for quite some time now that Cipro has serious capacity problems. I think Fakie has now realised that and perhaps his office should have drafted their report differently,” he said.
Chief government spokesperson Joel Netshitenzhe also mounted a defence, saying an investigation led by the Presidency’s Frank Chikane suggested that “most” of the omissions were technical. “My impression is that each one of them had an explanation,” he said in Parliament.
But in an interview this week, Fakie hit back, suggesting claims that his report was based on outdated Cipro information or on technical omissions were disingenuous. He said his office had interacted with Mahomed and Chikane during the six-month investigation, and that they had confirmed, through their own records, the cases of non-compliance listed in his (Fakie’s) report.
“In September last year we gave [Mahomed and Chikane] the list of ministers and deputy ministers, and the companies in which they appeared to have an interest, and asked them to check these against their own records of declarations. They reported back to us, and either confirmed the cases where there was non-declaration, which we included in the report, or informed us about which ministers had declared, which we excluded.”
“We were updating our tables and reports as recently as February because we had ministers writing directly to us, as a result of the engagement with the secretaries, with proof they had resigned from the relevant company,” he said.
“I made sure that everyone had the opportunity to respond to the report before we finalised it. So if people want to turn around now and say the Cipro database isn’t correct, they must provide me with documentary proof that they have resigned. I would also then consider the timeline — for example, did they resign because they knew a report was coming?”
Fakie explained that his method was not to finger specific individuals, but to raise awareness of the seriousness of the problem of non-declaration of interests. The report itself had stated that Cipro information could be outdated.
“The report comes from a culture within government of non-compliance with the ethics legislation despite very clear rules on the matter. We wanted to raise awareness so that where systems and implementation are failing in government departments, they can begin corrective procedures,” he said.
Netshitenzhe said further details of individual cases would be provided by the ministers concerned. Very little detail was immediately forthcoming, however.
The office of Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka could not explain the status of her involvement in the company Lesila or its activities. It is the only directorship she holds, according to the companies register. She was appointed a director in August 1999, with former ambassador of the United States Sheila Sisulu and Malusi Mpumlwana, Bishop of the Ethiopian Episcopal Church.
Yvonne Mfolo, the Minerals and Energy Ministry spokesperson, said Deputy Minister Lulu Xingwana had resigned from Citycat Trading 54 in 2004 but had declared it under a different name.
The Defence Ministry was still gathering information about Muleleki George’s directorship and shareholding in Emberen Trading as the Mail & Guardian went to press.
Deputy Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba is still listed as a director of Ongwini Life Services, Development Enterprise for Management and Strategic Services, and Biz Afrika 1447. He served each on behalf of the ANC Youth League, spokesperson Nkosana Sibuyi said. Sibuyi said he was not sure if Gigaba had resigned.
Fakie said his office would shortly begin probing the extent of corruption involving government tenders awarded to businesses with ministers as directors. “That to me is the serious stuff because it’s not just about ethics, it’s about corruption,” he said.