Auditor General Shauket Fakie relied on flawed data in finding that several Cabinet ministers and deputies failed to declare business interests, Parliament’s joint committee on ethics and members’ interests said on Friday.
”We know that he logged onto the Cipro [Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office] website and obtained this information. It is very easy,” chairperson Luwellyn Landers told reporters at Parliament.
Cipro is a database of registered companies and their directors.
Landers said Fakie failed to verify the accuracy and completeness of the Cipro data, which was outdated.
”What we want to know, did he go back, having been informed … that Cipro has a capacity problem … to Cipro or the registrar of companies and clarify that?
”We need to clarify why he didn’t follow up on the status of the Cipro database.”
The committee met on Friday morning to discuss Fakie’s report and found ”there does not appear to be any transgressions or breaches [by ministers or deputy ministers] based on the registrar’s [of members’ interests in Parliament] further investigation”.
There are some cases on which the committee will request further information from the registrar, Fakie and members themselves.
Landers declined to specify the cases or say how many are involved, and had ”no idea” how long the investigation would take.
The committee will request a meeting with Fakie within two weeks to clarify certain issues of concern.
”One of these being that his office did not verify the accuracy and completeness of the companies and intellectual property registration office [database] that was used while compiling the report.”
The database indicated that certain ministers and deputy ministers were members or directors of companies or close corporations long after they had resigned or terminated their membership.
”There are instances here which we have on file where a directorship has been resigned in 1997, [but] it still does not reflect on Cipro’s website … as a resignation.”
Landers said Fakie brought the apparent anomalies to the attention of the registrar of members’ interests, Fazela Mahomed, and the secretary to Cabinet, Frank Chikane.
”The secretary to Cabinet and the registrar did what they did to bring this to the attention of members, and there were explanations provided, formally, in writing, pointing out that directorships had been resigned, companies had been closed down and so on.
”One would have thought that the auditor general’s office would have come back to them and said, ‘We referred certain anomalies to you, can you now confirm the correctness thereof or provide us with the necessary explanations?’ That wasn’t done and … has created a problem for members of the committee.”
Had Fakie discussed the matter with Mahomed and Chikane, Landers said, he would have understood their ”modus operandi”.
”Section 21 companies, for example, the committee has always been of the view that those are not major issues and certain NGOs, they don’t regard them as being formal companies, profit-making etc.”
Fakie was quoted in the Mail & Guardian on Friday as saying his office had interacted with Mahomed and Chikane during the six-month investigation, and that they had confirmed cases of non-compliance contained in his report.
”That is one of the things we are going to raise with him,” Landers said in response to a question.
He added that Fakie’s report listed complaints against certain deputy ministers that the committee had ”dealt with” and ”dispensed of” in late 2004 and early 2005.
Fakie’s office said it had received no formal feedback from the committee’s meeting or the ”alleged concerns” raised.
”The AG [auditor general] had already received an invitation prior to this morning’s meeting, to discuss the report with the ethics committee,” it said in a statement. ”That meeting is scheduled to take place during the first week in April.”
Landers said concern over Fakie’s findings did not necessarily mean there had been no transgressions.
”There may well be cases. But in the main, committee members found they were quite satisfied with the registrar’s report.” The registrar found ”the opposite” of what Fakie had, Landers said.
”But before coming out with a definitive statement on the matter, the committee felt it would first like to engage the auditor general on the matter.”
After its discussions with Fakie, the committee will continue looking into whether there were indeed any failures to declare interests, Landers said. — Sapa