MBABANE – The controversy over the procurement of a E59 million SAP-ERP system for the Sincephetelo Motor Vehicle Accidents Fund (SMVAF) is deepening.
While two managers have been placed on special leave, whistleblowers have demanded that they should not be made to suffer alone.
Instead, they have demanded that another manager join them and be held accountable.
The whistleblowers, who are believed to be members of staff, wrote a letter to the Minister for Finance, Neal Rijkenberg, to demand that action be taken on the senior manager.
They called for an independent investigation to get to the bottom of the controversies that have clouded the parastatal.
As reported last week, an investigation which looked into how the procurement of an SAP-ERP system was conducted has seen two managers being placed on special leave.
On the other hand, the issue of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), David Mfanimpela Myeni, is still being deliberated on by the Board.
Following the findings of the investigation, the Board, led by Chairperson Zithulele Gina, is said to have acted on the recommendations, one of which is that they should institute what is known as consequence management.
As a result, two other members of the senior management, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Martin Simelane and Chief Operations Officer (COO) Innocent Dlamini, are currently on special leave.
The minister confirmed having received the letter but advised that he handed it to the Board, which is the one that should handle the media on the issue.
This publication has seen contents of the letter reportedly written to the minister.
It states that the whistleblowers want to bring to his attention a series of what they termed serious allegations relating to the conduct of the third manager.
The letter states that the allegations arose in the aftermath of the controversy surrounding the SAP-ERS system.
“If established, the matters herein may constitute material breaches of corporate governance, abuse of authority and violations of ethical and statutory duties,” reads part of the letter.
The whistleblowers claimed what has befallen the other senior executives might have been precipitated, if not orchestrated by colleagues and subordinates acting in concert.
Elaborating, the whistleblowers brought it to the attention of the minister that allegations have been raised that the senior manager in question was involved in the contractual stages between the fund and the supplier of the system.
The whistleblowers said they are surprised why the executive has not been subjected to any consequences.
They are wondering if this has been deliberate.
Such a scenario, they said, reflects governance deficiencies that warrant independent scrutiny.
In the same letter, the whistleblowers brought it to the minister’s attention that there was allegedly a lack of Board consensus and transparency regarding the whole controversy.
They alleged that the Board was not unanimous in its decisions concerning the senior management following the SAP-ERP procurement tender probe.
Another claim made by the whistleblowers relates to allegations to the effect that the senior manager did not alert the Board to procurement irregularities.
If this turns out to be true, they said such conduct could constitute a dereliction of duty.
The whistleblowers also revealed allegations of misconduct, including irregular travel to different places outside the country.
They alleged that some of the acts of misconduct are verifiable through the fund’s CCTV system, biometric and leave records and travel logs.
The other allegations stated in the letter, which touch on the personal conduct of the senior manager, cannot be printed due to their sensitive nature and they still need to be verified.
“In the interests of transparency, accountability and protection of public resources, we respectfully request your office to cause an independent investigation to be instituted into the allegations, ensure that accountability applies uniformly, without favour, prejudice or mission and strengthen the fund’s governance and control environment to prevent recurrence of similar misconduct,” the letter reads.
Full article available in our paper.
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