South African Airways (SAA) has been pillaged by devastating corruption and a very small window exists to turn things around.
This was the sentiment expressed by head of the Special Investigatin Unit (SIU), Advocate Andy Mothibi to Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), on Wednesday evening.
SAA scale of corruption laid bare
As reported by SABC News, Mothibi painted a grim image of the national airline’s financial standing. While business rescue practitioners are in the midst of finalising payments of voluntary severance packages to employees, the investigating unit has uncovered a pit of corrupt dealings that could put a halt to that.
Shoddy procurement contracts
The SIU has, thus far, reviewed 79 procurement contracts and almost every single one is dubious, to say the least. An estimated R600 million has been lost to these shoddy maintenance deals, SIU’s Zodwa Xesibe told Scopa.
“Our investigations are ongoing. We have identified at least about R600 million that was linked to the loss that SAA has incurred in terms of these matters but when we investigated we finalised two of these matters that had no related to irregular we find,” she revealed.
Some of the contractors under the microscope of SIU’s probe include Bank of China Aviation, Flyfofa private charter aircraft and McKinsey and Company.
The latter, it’s said, is attempting to close the lid on a R12 million SAA scandal by making repayment arrangements before their State Capture Inquiry appearance.
“In this regard, they were paid in excess of R12 million and in this contract Mckinsey then appointed regiments as their strategic partner. So as a result of the evidence that we have presented to them at the State Capture Inquiry, then Mckinsey offered to pay the entire contract before appearing at the Zondo Commission of Inquiry,” Xesibe added.
SAA employees had their hands in the jar
Currently, the SIU is racing against time to pick out employees who were found to be funnelling monies from the national airline. While some have tendered their resignations in the hopes of averting accountability, Mothibi says their severance packages have to be intercepted and used to return all that they’ve stolen.
“In the same way as we do with those employees who resigned in the face of wrongdoings and we approached the courts to freeze the pensions. I do not think that there is any legal impediments that says anyone who is about to be paid a severance package, we cannot seek legal interventions to hold that in the interests of ensuring that when the time to recover we should be able to recover,” he said.
This devastating revelation from an investigation that has yet to uncover more dirt is, Mothibi said, only a fraction of the devastation faced by SAA.