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MBABANE – The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SMVAF, David Mfanimpela Myeni, has requested to step down and leave the parastatal.
This follows an investigation which looked into how the procurement of a SAP-ERP system for the Sincephetelo Motor Vehicle Accidents Fund (SMVAF) was conducted.
Experts argue that a SAP-ERP simplifies and modernises financial management by providing tools for handling everything from accounts payable and receivable to expense and tax compliance.
They argue that with real-time visibility into financial data, businesses can make more informed decisions and keep up with regulatory requirements.
The investigation, conducted by a South African (SA) consultant, is said to have uncovered a litany of procurement flaws that occurred.
However, it has been gathered that there is no evidence of irregularities in the usage of the funds.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that the CEO was bypassed during some stages of the procurement process.
It was shared that there was no intent by the CEO to flout the procedures.
As a result, some of the sources are of the view that the Board itself must be held accountable.
Following the findings of the investigation, the Board, led by Chairperson Zithulele Gina, is said to have acted on the recommendations, one of them being that they should institute what is known as consequence management.
The consequence management focused on looking into ways of disciplining the members of the management who are involved in procurement and these are Myeni, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Martin Simelane and Chief Operations Officer (COO) Innocent Dlamini.
It has been gathered that on Friday, the Board engaged the trio and detailed the possible disciplinary procedures that were to follow.
During the deliberations, it is said that Myeni voluntarily requested that a smooth exit would be ideal for him.
The CEO is said to have raised concerns that the trust and relations might have been eroded.
The Board is said to have agreed that it will look into whether there is a possibility of a smooth exit.
Unconfirmed reports are to the effect that the two other senior managers have communicated a wish to also exit the parastatal.
However, this has not been confirmed, as nothing official has been communicated between the parties involved.
The investigation is said to have uncovered that procurement procedures were seriously flawed in the procurement exercise.
Initially, this publication has gathered that the Board of the parastatal had approved a budget of E59 million as the cost of the system.
The Board had directed that the management should not surpass E10 million in the first phase.
Reliable sources have relayed that while the Board expected the management to spend at least E10 million and then report back on the progress of the system, the money spent ended up going up such that by last year, about E42 million had been used without a report of how the system was progressing.
It has been gathered that what caused a problem was that the Board discovered that the system that was purchased had not been giving them the results they had hoped for.
The in-effectiveness of the system is said to have raised many questions within the parastatal.
After that, a whistleblower is said to have confided to the Board that the procurement of the system was, in fact, not done in accordance with the existing legislation.
In particular, the whistleblower is said to have confided that there were processes that were flawed and this, it has been gathered, prompted the Board to institute the investigation.
Part of the information said to have been shared with the Board is said to have raised questions about the supplier of the system.
The whistleblower is also said to have pointed to red flags in the hiring of the supplier of the system.
Full article available in our paper.
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