Cricket South Africa CEO Gerald Majola should have fully cleared bonus payments through the relevant channels, CSA finance committee chairperson John Bester said on Monday.
“My feeling is that sort of thing should have been put before the remuneration committee,” Bester told a ministerial inquiry into cricket.
He served on the Khan commission, which cleared Majola last year, giving him a warning after an internal inquiry into R4.7-million in bonuses paid to CSA staff in 2009.
Bester told the inquiry, chaired by Judge Chris Nicholson, that the Khan commission had been necessary.
“The way you conduct an investigation of this nature is internal first, then external,” he said.
“If issues arose beyond the confines of the internal investigation, an external committee would then become relevant.”
A KPMG audit later found that Majola had breached the Companies Act on at least four occasions, but Bester denied that the Khan commission had covered up anything.
“I wasn’t there to protect. I was there to investigate,” he said.
Former United Cricket Board of South Africa managing director Ali Bacher was scheduled to appear before the inquiry later on Monday.
Bacher was expected to explain an alleged payment of R5-million in bonuses he received, according to Majola, after the 2003 Cricket World Cup.
The Nicholson inquiry adjourned for six weeks in December and resumed on Monday morning.
Former CSA president Norman Arendse was expected to appear before the inquiry on Tuesday.
Arendse was the last person included in the latest schedule for verbal submissions, but the sports ministry said more people could be added to the list.
The hearing continues. — Sapa