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.
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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