The board of the Resolve Group notes with concern the contents of the article in the Mail & Guardian of July 8, titled “Gama supporters say he is the victim of a witch-hunt“. In the text was the sentence: “The executives question why Transnet vigorously pursued Gama’s case while it ignored other serious allegations.”
The article, by Matuma Letsoalo, describes how Transnet executives who support Siyabonga Gama provided him with “confidential documents and a list of corruption cases which have been ignored by Transnet” to show that Transnet allegedly selectively prosecutes procurement irregularities.
Letsoalo went on to say that “one such case involves Transnet’s group executive for human resources, Pradeep Maharaj, who allegedly awarded a R48-million tender to a company called the Resolve Group to develop and implement the company’s human resources strategy without following proper procurement procedures”.
Letsoalo then gives a little space to Transnet’s response that the “decision was approved by the delegated authority, namely the group chief executive at the time”, before alleging that Resolve’s work was never assessed.
It is disappointing that Letsoalo failed to contact anyone at the Resolve Group to verify the allegations about Resolve. Had he done so, he would have uncovered the following facts:
- The procurement process described has never formed part of “a list of corruption cases” at Transnet, as implied in the article.
- Resolve was first contacted by the group chief executive (GCE) Maria Ramos and requested to assist Transnet in its restructuring. Ramos introduced Resolve to Maharaj who concluded the contractual arrangements. The contract was initiated by the GCE and Resolve reported not only to Maharaj in relation to its work, but also to the Transnet executive committee, the GCE and the board.
- Resolve was informed that the GCE and the board approved the appointment of Resolve and detailed contracts and work orders were concluded
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- Contrary to the assertion by Letsoalo that “no apparent evaluation was even done on the quality of services rendered by the service provider [Resolve]”, the implementation of the Transnet human resources strategy project was audited at least twice by Ernst & Young. The audits took place in March 2007 and November 2008 and Resolve emerged very positively from the review, with one of the findings being that the talent management project had achieved exceptional outcomes.
- Our work at Transnet has received high praise and some aspects formed the basis for a Wharton Business School case study.
The Resolve Group’s brand statement, “Adding value to clients; adding value to society”, reflects our true disposition and, through our work advising government departments, corporates and state-owned entities, we think we live up to it.
Our clients, more than 700 of them to date, tell us we do.
Peter Harris is co-founder and managing director of the Resolve Group