The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) has launched an investigation into the alleged approval of acting payments for senior managers using a revoked directive.
Prasa spokesperson Andiswa Makanda said the state agency’s internal audit department had already established some facts. To date, she said, the probe has revealed that there was no fraudulent version of the directive.
“The directive doesn’t change – both versions effectively say the same thing – the version with the comment provides clarity to prevent overpayment in terms of the acting allowance,” said Makanda.
However, last week former Prasa Group CEO Kgosie Matthews, who is the signatory to the revoked directive, described the act as “fraudulent”, saying a comment was even added to the second version of the directive in his name.
He said there was a motivation for a salary hike for acting positions that he initially approved in 2021 together with the acting head of human capital management.
Subsequent to that approval, he said, the then group chief financial officer raised objections that internal processes had not been followed, including that the finance department had not been consulted.
It was then agreed that the process must start again.
“And in fact, some money had already been paid to some executives. We insisted that the money should be repaid for the process to start all over again and follow a proper process.
“But, what I noticed is that in the comments section of the directive, a comment has now been added in my name. I have never put any comments to that effect. I can only assume that was done post-facto since my departure from Prasa.”
In response, Makhanda told Sunday World that all executive-level acting officials were paid in line with the directive.
“Both versions of the memo guide the acting allowance payment,” said Makanda, adding that the acting Group CEO, Hishaam Emeran, was among the officials who benefited from the policy.
“He knows the two versions of the directive.”
She said the directive was approved at the group exco level and there was “some misunderstanding regarding implementation”.
“The wrongly calculated acting allowance was returned by all executive-level acting employees and the correctly calculated acting allowance was paid in line with the directive.”
Sunday World reported at the weekend that Prasa executives had cut corners to resuscitate the previously revoked proposal for senior managers in acting posts to get a salary boost, a move that borders on fraud.
Documents seen by Sunday World show that Matthews’ signature was used to authorise the payments, more than a year after he left the state rail agency.
In addition, a comment was added to the outdated directive in Matthews’ name.
Matthews signed the old directive in September 2021, but it was revoked shortly thereafter because proper internal processes had not been followed. Those who benefited from the salary hike paid back the money after being ordered to do so.
The alleged irregularity surfaced after a Prasa general manager raised the alarm that the directive used to authorise the payments appeared to be a cut-and-paste of an outdated instruction.
The document resurfaced more than a year after the signatories left the agency, said Bhekani Khumalo, who addressed a memorandum on February 1 to Emeran.
Khumalo said he was bringing to Emeran’s attention an issue brought to his attention by concerned staff members. The issue stemmed from the directive’s implementation.
He said there was a concern over “an apparent irregularity in that there are two different versions of the same directive”.
The two versions had the signatures of former acting group executive of human capital management Nonhlanhla Kondowe (undated) and Matthews (dated September 30, 2021).
Said Khumalo: “Apparent irregularity pertains to the comments section in which version one has the same signatories without any comment in the comments section next to Matthews’ signature.”
However, he said, version two with exactly the same contents, under the two signatories as mentioned, had a comment next to Matthews’ signature.
According to his knowledge, the original directive (version one) was in circulation and took effect around September or October 2021.
Khumalo said the suspended group chief financial officer, Lesibana Fosu, later revoked version one of the directive. He said Fosu also ordered those who benefited from it to repay the money, which they duly did.
He said the signatories, Kondowe and Matthews, had long left Prasa. Kondowe was suspended around September 15 2022, while Matthews left in November 2021.
He added that version two suddenly resurfaced and had since been implemented after Kondowe’s suspension.
“The comments section on the two versions are dissimilar and as such indicate that the signatories who amended the earlier version [version 1], by changing the comments section, is the basis for version two to be implemented to the benefit of the mentioned categories of management levels mentioned in the comments section.
“It is my concern that when version two resurfaced, the original signatories were either suspended or no longer in Prasa’s employment.
“Despite the governance concerns related to the issuance and lawfulness of the directive, the existence of two versions of this directive with apparent changes, purported to have been executed by the original signatories, is a concern.
Given that version two has been implemented, said Khumalo, “it raises serious ethical and potential criminal issues”.
He requested that Emeran investigate the issue as soon as possible.
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