Wel een interessant artikel. Het laat goed zien tot hoever het mismanagment en het graaien doorgedrongen is in de society. Een van de meest belangrijke plekken van het land, en van de ANC zelfs, is een plek van onkunde en graaiende mensen die ooit wat voor de vrijheid van het land hebben gedaan.

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-08-01-how-robben-island-was-robbed

How Robben Island was robbed

Gross mismanagement, incompetence, fraud and outright theft are bleeding Robben Island dry, according to a forensic audit of the world heritage site completed this year.

The report, kept under wraps until now but shown to the Mail & Guardian this week, has led to a raft of disciplinary charges against the island’s top management and an investigation by the Special Investigating Unit of the National Prosecuting Authority.

“The management of the island treated it like their own private ATM,” an angry board member said this week.

The report by consultancy Orca identifies a R25-million hole in the accounts of Robben Island Museum (RIM), an extraordinary series of

managerial lapses and evidence to suggest criminal misconduct.

“For every rand received from tourism revenue R2,50 was paid to staff. Salary increases were in excess of inflation and salary increases to executive management 259% between 2004 and 2007. General salaries increased by 29% between 2006/2007,” the audit report found. “Costs six times faster than revenue.”

At the centre of the saga are the year-late delivery of a new ferry from a Cape Town boat-building company, Farocean Marine, and the suspended RIM chief executive Paul Langa – the former head of security at the ANC’s Luthuli house headquarters and director of numerous businesses.

“The process of managing the acquisition of the ferry … was grossly mismanaged,” the audit states.

The ferry, which cost just more than R22-million, does not even appear on the island’s asset register.

Delivery was due in February 2007 but took place only in February 2008. The contract, signed by Langa, made no provision for penalties.

The audit report queries the apparent payment of an extra R1,7-million for the R21-million vessel and missing details about the purchase.

“There is no audit trail reflecting the capitalisation of the RIM’s most material asset … due to lack of documentation we were unable to confirm that RIM deducted the penalty of 3% of the contract value of the boat due to late delivery,”the report says.

The forensic audit concludes that “the agreement between the RIM and Farocean for the construction of the ferry is overly skewed in favour of Farocean; we couldn’t ascertain which attorneys drew up the contract and whether they were appointed by Farocean or RIM”.

But Farocean’s Peter Kuttel says the company has not been paid “in full” for delivering the ferry. “The RIM keeps on saying that it doesn’t have the money to pay me. I believe it will, though. The expectations of the management were too optimistic when they ordered the boat. Just to get the plans okayed took six months,” Kuttel said.

There also appears to have been massive theft of fuel from the ferry. On May 9 the ferry filled up with 3 107 litres of diesel. For the next three days the ferry undertook no trips. On May 13 the ferry made six trips to the island. For this “the expected fuel consumption would be in the order of, at most, 1 500 litres of fuel. Yet on May 14 the boat refuelled with another 3 111 litres … We believe that there is a strong inference that fuel was stolen off the ferry,” says the report.

The island’s curio shop also appears to have been a financial black hole. “Nineteen moneybags went missing on 19 different days,” the report records, while the shop’s bank records are out of sync with its accounting records to the tune of R9,2-million.

In February Langa, chief financial officer Nash Masekwameng and chief operating officer Denmark Tungwana were suspended and have since been informed that they will face disciplinary charges. The decision to press charges was made despite a recommendation by Minister of Arts and Culture Pallo Jordan that they be allowed to resign quietly to avoid “embarrassment”.

Letters from Robben Island chair Naledi Tsiki to the three managers detail charges of negligence and gross financial mismanagement.

Among other charges, Langa is cited for poor work performance, failing to implement a fraud-prevention plan, gross financial mismanagement and receiving unauthorised salary increases.

Tungwana is accused of failing to disclose interests in at least eight companies. Other charges include allegations that he misled a special audit committee that was probing the ferry contract. He allegedly failed to investigate the financial viability of the ferry plan, claimed a penalty clause had been invoked when it had not and failed to appear at project meetings .

Masekwameng faces wide-ranging charges including misrepresenting his qualifications for the job of chief financial officer, accounting failures and receiving unauthorised salary increases. “The employee gave out that he was sufficiently qualified and experienced to perform the assigned duties when he knew, or should have known, that did not have the required qualifications and/or experience,” Tsiki’s letter reads.

Among 18 separate charges of negligence levelled at Masekwameng are failure to implement basic accounting procedures and failure to manage costs.

None of the suspended RIM employees could be reached for comment. Langa is on leave in Sweden.