Johannesburg- An official at the centre of a R20-million agriculture master plan that forms an integral part of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s economic growth strategy has quit his job.
Elvis Khosa, a supply chain manager at the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC), has left the entity, which falls under the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Khosa had helped shine the spotlight on the irregularities that have hobbled the Agriculture and Agro-processing Master Plan (AAMP), which the NAMC has so far failed to produce.
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In his third State of the Nation Address in June 2019, Ramaphosa announced that his administration was going to substantially expand the agriculture and agro-processing sector by supporting key value chains and products, developing new markets and reducing reliance on agricultural imports.
Sunday World revealed last month that the plan has been marred by delays due to irregularities that were identified.
An internal report by NAMC’s risk and compliance unit, dated February 1 2021, has blown the whistle on irregularities in the appointment of service providers to produce the AAMP.
The unit also accused NAMC CEO Simphiwe Ngqangweni of a “serious conflict of interest” after requesting a supply chain officer to ensure certain service providers were included in the list of companies that services were required from.
Khosa was due to face diciplinary charges. In terms of the charge sheet, sent on Wednesday, acting chief financial officer Funani Mudau accuses Khosa of failing to submit information for auditors in the current financial year and of taking leave of absence without authorisation. Mudau said Khosa had caused her and Ngqangweni to fail to achieve a clean audit. But Khosa hit back in a resignation letter on Friday, saying the responsibility to achieve a clean audit rested with Mudau and Ngqangweni.
“You are clearly making me a scapegoat for irregular expenditure identified by the auditor-general. To date, the organisation has an irregular expenditure of R82-million emanating from 2019/2020 and no one was held accountable or subjected to any consequence management action for all persons who caused irregular expenditure, even though there is a detailed determination test report that indicates who should be charged for causing that irregular expenditure and, as such, National Treasury has declined to condone the irregular expenditure incurred due to failure to subject officials who caused irregular expenditure under consequence management,” he said.
In March, Estelle Setan, acting chief procurement officer, rejected Ngqangweni’s bid to have over R80-million condoned.
“National Treasury does not condone the irregular expenditure in the amount of R80 804 504.32 as no evidence was provided that paragraph 56 (g) of the irregular expenditure framework and section 51 (e) (iii) of PFMA have been complied with.
Business Khosa quits NAMC, citing threats after revelations Whistleblower shone spotlight on AAMP irregularities Simphiwe Ngqangweni plied with,” she said. Khosa believed that his woes were linked to the problems plaguing the AAMP.
He said the master plan had been subjected to cancellation and re-advertisement due to improper specifications with the aim of avoiding irregular expenditure.
“I suddenly received death threats from unknown faces and unfortunately the organisation did nothing to protect me from the potential harm. This affected my health. “This is supported by the sick notes and doctors’ reports,” he said.
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