Cape Town - The SABC task team has made steady progress in cracking down on abuses in the organisation uncovered by the Auditor General - with nine criminal cases having been lodged and over R200 000 recovered.
This is according to Sully Motsweni, head of SABC's compliance and monitoring and chair of the Auditor General Task Team.
Motsweni briefed the National Assembly's Portfolio Committee on Communications on Tuesday on action the public broadcaster had taken in respect to the Auditor General Terence Nombembe's 2009 findings, which uncovered abuse in a number of areas at the SABC.
The task team, made up of internal staff members, was put together on 24 November, after the broadcaster had made slow progress on the Auditor Generals' 2009 recommendations.
Motsweni said the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), which has been tasked to carry out an investigation on behalf of the public broadcaster, had recovered R203 000 from two SABC officials.
This included R180 000 for abuse connected to an official who had taken his child to the 2008 Beijing Olympics and R23 000 from a staff member who had abused their petrol cards.
The SABC has so far spent R19.5 million on the SIU's investigation and a full report is expected from the SIU on 31 March, said Motsweni.
Nine criminal cases have been opened by the SABC and SIU in recent years - four of these were by the SIU and include:
- An investigation is under way into the South African Music Rights Organisation (Samro).
- A new case relating to the 2010 World Cup public viewing areas will be assigned to a NPA prosecutor.
- The NPA is still deciding whether to prosecute a SABC official over the acquisition of international content which was not required.
- Two suspects have been arrested related to fictitious invoices from the personal assistant to a former group executive of commercial enterprises.
Five criminal cases have also been opened following the investigations carried out by the SABC's group internal audit. These included the SABC's head of legal services arrested in 2007 in relation to fictitious invoices which is now before the National Prosecuting Authorities.
A warrant for arrest has been opened for a service provider on the run who is wanted regarding fictitious invoices in 2007 related to the broadcaster's Woman of the Year Awards.
In another case which was opened, the suspected employee had passed away and the police are set to discuss the matter with the senior public prosecutor.
The national prosecutor has decided there was no case to be made in a solicitation of bribery matter over excessive discounts offered, while in another excessive discounts case no decision had yet been taken by the NPA on whether to prosecute or not.
Motsweni said it had become apparent that most of the work the SIU reported on, had been previously been looked at by the SABC's auditors.
The SABC task team has also set up a dashboard which details the progress towards meeting the Auditor General's 2009 recommendations.
Of the 20 SABC employees that conducted business with the public broadcaster, only one had obtained permission from their respective line managers, said Motsweni. Charge sheets had been drawn up and letters had been sent to the 19 employees, enquiring why they had breached procurement rules.
"But as a precautionary measure the task team has then since blocked their companies (the 19) from the service providers' database so that at any point they are not used as service providers," she said.
Petrol cards have since been withdrawn from all senior managers, except in relation to fleet cars and those allocated to sales team members. Limits have been placed on the cards and measures taken so that the cards can only be used for petrol and toll gates.
The Auditor General, she said, had identified cases where SABC officials had been able to change a full set of tyres and even an engine on the cards.
Motsweni said the private travel company that was contracted by the public prosecutor to handle sports-related travels, is currently under liquidation and owes the SABC R433 000 in over-claims as a result of some staff members having pulled out of planned travel trips.
"We have instituted a legal claim and liquidator has acknowledged such claim and hopefully once liquidation process is completed we will be able to recoup that money," she said.
All individuals that study through the SABC will have to sign an acknowledgement of debt, after a former official studied on a bursary which officials at the public broadcaster failed to later recoup.
The SABC has revised its procurement policies around the Presidential Golf Day to ensure that no individuals other than relevant signatories of a division can commit the organisation to advertising or trade exchanges.
The public broadcaster's tax department had written to an executive who received security on her property as a company benefit. This is constituted a fringe benefit and would be taxed accordingly.
Recommendations had also been made to the board to ensure there is clarity on the company secretary and the role of the group secretariat.
Board member Suzanne Vos said a lot of work still needed to be done to tackle the problems at the state broadcaster, but added that people in middle-management had "performed brilliantly" and that progress was being made.
She said there were still some employees who tried to defraud the public broadcaster.
Committee members, however, expressed disappointment on the length of time it had taken for action to be taken to address the Auditor Generals' 2009 findings.
