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Duja Consulting finished its investigation on November 5 2021 but the report was never released to CETA to implement its recommendations.

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Sizwe sama Yende

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Rogue board members and employees who nearly collapsed the Construction Education & Training Authority (CETA) could be causing damage in other institutions because a damning forensic audit report completed four years ago was not released.

The investigation report by Duja Consulting was given to former Higher Education and Training Minister, Blade Nzimande, on November 5 2021 but was never released to CETA to implement its recommendations.

Zimande placed CETA under administration in 2020 following numerous allegations of mismanagement, governance failures and conflict of interest and then commissioned a forensic report.

This was second time CETA was placed under administration. The first time was in 2011.

Higher Education and Training portfolio committee chairperson, Tebogo Letsie, decried the fact that no one knew who the culprits were since the report was left to gather dust.

“This report uncovered a lot of things, [but] we don’t know the names of the executive committee board members. Since 2020, these people could have been appointed in other boards to continue causing the mess,” Letsie said.

The Duja report, which the department presented to the portfolio committee on Wednesday, left out the names of the culprits.

It painted a gloomy picture of how board members took decisions that overcommitted CETA’s finances and risked its collapse.

The Duja report found that:

·      A receptionist with a fake matric certificate drew a salary of R1 million annualy for a period of five years;

·      Board members bloated employee salaries from R48 million per annum in 2015/16 to R126 million in 2018/19;

·      The board decided to contribute 100% to employees’ medical aid scheme despite minutes indicating that CETA would contribute 70%. They also decided to contribute 100% to the employees’ pension fund;

·      The board usurped all powers to allocate discretionary grant funds and, as a result, the expenditure ballooned from R550 million in 2019/2020 financial year to R1.2 billion.

CETA chief executive officer, Malusi Shezi, told the committee that CETA paid random salary increases and bonuses. CETA board paid a peculiar clean audit bonus.

Shezi said that R163 million was spent on bonuses in 2018. “There were clean audit bonuses. CETA received clean audits and employees would be given such bonuses over and above performance bonuses,” he said.

The committee also heard that certification of training institutions was in shambles and threatened the credibility of the institution.

“The board exco’s understanding of powers was deeply troubling to investigators. Decisions were not taken to the full board for ratification,” Shezi said.

The Duja report recommended that the board, which was dissolved in 2020, must be held accountable. However, that cannot happen until the report is released.

Letsie said that the department should have released the Duja report.

“It means that some of the implicated people are their people, and they cannot release the report,” he said.