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Public Protector gives NW community feedback on investigation

───   04:59 Mon, 10 Oct 2016

Public Protector gives NW community feedback on investigation | News Article
Thuli Madonsela (Refilwe Gaeswe/OFM News)

Brits - The Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, has reported back to the Bapo-Ba-Mogale community in North West on her investigation into hundreds of millions of rands which was paid over to community but of which precious little remains.


In a statement issued on Sunday, the office of the Public Protector said Advocate Thuli Madonsela visited the Bapo-Ba-Mogale community near Brits on Saturday to present a progress report on an investigation into allegations of systematic looting of the collective resources of the community, primarily funds being held in the so-called “D account”.

She confirmed that on her last visit to the community in July she had reported that the community had had R721,000 to its name by the time the Auditor-General audited its account in 1994. She added that, over the past two decades, the funds in the account rose to a total of R617 million, made up of R392 million in deposits and R224 million in interest earned.

By 2014, the balance in the account had dropped to just over R495,000 and she reported that the investigation had revealed that R7.7 million had been spent on the palace, with R3 million alone spent on the decor.

“Adv. Madonsela further informed the community that new royalties from Lonmin and others, no longer got into the D-Account since the establishment of the Bapo-ba-Mogale Investment Company,” the statement added. “She said the company had since received R80 million from royalties and its business operations. The company, which she said was going through an audit, had borrowed a little over R100 million from the Public Investment Corporation, which meant it was in debt.”

The statement said the Public Protector investigation was looking at whether all of the royalty payments due to the community from mining company, Lonmin, and other businesses mining on community land were paid.

“In addition, the Public Protector is investigating the alleged abuse of resources relating to the construction of Kgosi Edward Mogale’s palace.”

Madonsela had previously undertaken to provide the community with a final report before she leaves the office.

But at the weekend she reported that although “great progress” had been made in the investigation since the last visit, including accounts and people who had been paid, but that “verification of who was paid, whether there was value for money and whether proper procurement processes were followed was incomplete”.

Madonsela explained that it had taken time for her office to procure the services of experts needed to help her with the verification of data relating to the management of the Bapo account, which was administered by the North West government.

She reported that forensic auditor Godfrey Rangongo and quantity surveyor Andre Moolman were only appointed in September 2016 and would conclude their work in three months, meaning there could not be a final report at this stage.

“We have come to give you a progress report. The final report will only be ready by December 2016 or, the latest, by January 2017,” she said. “We will, however, give you an exit report on Friday, October 14, 2016.”

The Public Protector explained that the exit report would only contain what was known at his stage, “including information contained in the documents and evidence received from respondents since the beginning of the investigation as well as what is to happen going forward”.

ANA


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