By Alec Hogg
My life changed in 1975 when selected to represent South Africa at the World Scouts Jamboree in Norway. Six weeks with lads of all skin hues blasted away myths so carefully propagated by the Apartheid regime. It put my life on a very different course.
Prof Brian Figaji was one of the scout masters on that transformative excursion. We have been acquainted once more during the past three years serving on the board of Scouts SA, which he chairs. Given that Scouts is all about honour and setting the right example, I shouldn’t have been surprised at what Brian did this week.
Even so, given all the corporate antibodies around, it came as a pleasant surprise to hear that as chairman, Brian called the Wesgro board together for a special meeting on Monday to deal with “the KPMG issue”. Directors of the Western Cape’s development arm duly decided to fire the Gupta auditors. Sending a signal to stakeholders that those who facilitate corruption must be brought to account.
KPMG’s new chairman and CEO appeared before Parliament yesterday. Among the inquisitors was the DA’s spokesman on Finance David Maynier. He left unimpressed, reckoning that the SCOPA hearing raised many new unanswered questions. He wants KPMG back in the hot seat soon. The full interview and transcript is on Biznews Premium.
Wesgro statement: Terminates contract with KPMG
“The board of Wesgro, Cape Town and the Western Cape’s Official Tourism, Trade and Investment Promotion Agency, has taken a decision to terminate the agency’s contract with KMPG South Africa, as our internal auditors.
By their own admission, relating to work done on the SARS report and work done for Oakbay, the firm did not follow their own procedures. They have also admitted that the conduct of their employees did not live up to the required standard.
Wesgro finds this behaviour to be unacceptable. It has caused a breakdown of trust in the company, which makes it impossible to continue with the contract.
Wesgro would like to stress that this does not reflect on the work conducted for the agency by KMPG’s local team in Cape Town. We have always found their work to be of the highest standard.
We will now commence with a process to procure a new service provider as our internal auditors.” – Tim Harris, Wesgro CEO
