An internal disciplinary hearing has found Gregory Wayne Adams, the chief executive of a government-owned sector education and training authority (Seta), guilty in relation to more than R1.2-billion in irregular expenditure.
The verdict, delivered on Tuesday, comes after a marathon disciplinary process, which started when the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sector Education and Training Authority (merSeta) suspended Adams in 2022 after a forensic audit returned a raft of damning findings against him.
According to the report, which Sunday World has seen, Adams was found guilty of charges two, three, four (count two) and seven. However, he was not guilty in relation to charges four (count one), five and six.
The hearing, held at Afsa Chambers in Sandton, Johannesburg, was chaired by Adv Lindi Nkosi-Thomas.
Charge two is related to the irregular increase in the Joint Education Trust’s (JET) discretionary grant.
According to the hearing outcome document, charge two (count one) determined that between January and March/April 2019, Adams caused merSeta to conclude an addendum to the JET’s discretionary grant memorandum of agreement (MOA), thereby increasing the allocation amount from R 2 646 500 to R7 396 500.
“At the time, the employee (Adams) ought to have been aware that the increase was not duly authorised in terms of merSeta’s applicable legal framework.”
In relation to charge three, Adams was found to have failed to exercise adequate oversight regarding the conclusion of the JET discretionary grant.
Adams allegedly caused various acting chief operating officers to irregularly conclude discretionary grant MOAs on behalf of merSeta in breach of the prevailing merSeta delegation of authority; as a result, merSeta incurred irregular expenditure of more than R1.2-billion.
“The amount is inclusive of R40 362 638, which amount relates to counts two to six,” reads the document.
The document further states that in March 2021 and March 2022, an employee concluded several discretionary grant MOAs without any delegated authority and without exercise of sufficient oversight.
The document further alleges that a staff member concluded a discretionary grant MOA with several external companies without any delegated authority and absent the employee’s exercise of sufficient oversight to ensure that only duly authorised merSeta officials conclude the discretionary grant MOAs on behalf of merSeta.
This action resulted in the state-owned entity incurring more than R40.5-million in irregular expenditure in total as a result of the MOAs.
Adams is also accused of failing to declare a conflict of interest in regard to the JET transaction. Between July 2018 and March 2020, merSeta concluded various agreements to fund JET, an entity represented by an official who had a long-standing relationship with Adams from the employee’s previous employment.
Adams was allegedly part of merSeta’s management that approved and concluded the JET agreements and failed to disclose his relationship with the JET official, which is in breach of the conditions of employment with merSeta.
The disciplinary hearing outcomes document called upon Adams and merSeta to file their submissions in mitigation and/or aggravation of sanction with the chair by no later than close of business on October 20.
