Executives at state railway agency Prasa cut corners to resuscitate a 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 showed that suspended group CEO Kgosi Matthews’ signature was used to authorise the payments, more than a year after he had 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 In addition, a comment was added to the outdated directive in Matthews’ name.
Matthews signed the old directive in September 2021, but it was revoked shortly thereafter because proper internal processes had not been followed and those who benefited from the salary hike paid back the money after being ordered to do so.
Questions sent to Prasa on Thursday were not answered.
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general manager raised the alarm that the directive used to authorise the payments appeared to be a cut-and-paste of an outdated instruction.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 acting group CEO Hishaam 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 implementation of the directive.
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 CFO, 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 said version two appeared to have resurfaced and 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.”
Khumalo said: “It is my concern that when version two resurfaced, the original signatories were either suspended or no longer in the employment of Prasa. Despite the governance concerns related to the issuance and lawfulness of the directive, the existence of the 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 urgently investigate the matter.
Matthews said yesterday 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 a number of objections that internal processes had not been correctly followed. This included 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 of the 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 and I have never put any comment to that effect. I can only assume that was done post-facto since my departure from Prasa.”
According to the disputed comment, it is purported that Matthews added a comment that for general managers and higher positions the acting
allowance should be calculated from 50% of the acting position’s salary.
Sunday World understands that in terms of internal process, the directive would have to be drafted by the executives in human capital management. It would then go through the finance department, and finally be approved by the group CEO.
“And they’re using my name to say it was approved,” said Matthews. “It would definitely be criminal because that’s someone perpetrating fraud. I would also have to look at the possibility of actually opening criminal charges.
I will have to consult with my own attorneys because that is clearly a fraud”.
According to the original Matthews directive, employees selected to act in positions at executive level, general manager and higher were to be paid the acting allowance calculated as the difference between their contracted salaries and the midpoint of the salary scale of the position they will act in.
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