No charges of corruption or tender rigging were pending against any National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) employees, NPA head Vusi Pikoli said on Tuesday.
He rejected a Sunday Times report that NPA chief executive officer Marion Sparg and her ”entire executive management team” faced such charges.
”There are no charges of corruption and/or tender rigging being brought against anyone in the NPA,” Pikoli said in a statement.
There was, however, a pending disciplinary hearing against Sparg and two others ”relating mainly to the alleged poor administration in the NPA during the period 2001 to 2003”.
”The pending disciplinary hearing involves three senior officials in the NPA’s corporate services unit and not the entire management of the NPA.”
The other two were deputy CEO Beryl Simelane and head of the NPA’s integrity management unit, Dipuo Mvelase.
Along with Sparg, they were served with notices on Monday of an internal disciplinary hearing, following a recommendation of the Public Service Commission (PSC), the statement said.
Disciplinary hearings were internal matters between an employer and its employees, and the full details could not be divulged, Pikoli said.
He explained that a number of anonymous allegations were made to the PSC in 2003 regarding the administration of the NPA.
After discussions with the NPA, the PSC launched an independent probe, which found most of the allegations to be unsubstantiated.
”It is important to stress that the PSC did not recommend that criminal charges be brought against anyone,” the statement said.
”There are also no allegations of corruption and tender rigging forming part of the pending disciplinary hearing.”
The allegations to be probed did not relate to prosecutions, investigations, asset forfeiture or the protection of witnesses. They also did not relate to the NPA’s directorate of special operations, better known as the Scorpions.
Two individuals named in the Sunday Times report, Khaya Makinana
and Suresh Bhikha would not be the subject of any disciplinary hearing, the statement said.
It made no mention of two other senior officials also named by the newspaper as having been implicated, who both reportedly resigned before the probe was completed.
Pikoli rejected ”suggestions of a deliberate delay” on the NPA’s part.
”The NPA’s executive committee, at the insistence of the individuals concerned, did raise its concerns about the delay in finalising the matter as far back as May 24, 2005.”
The NPA considered allegations of corruption in a very serious light, Pikoli added.
”Insinuations that we would tolerate corruption in our own ranks for the sake of political expediency are without substance.” – Sapa