Anyone who has ever dealt with the SA Post Office knows there is some serious room for improvement. That’s where the joke about sending your Christmas cards in October comes from – it’s true, my friend just received hers two weeks ago from the UK.

Of course it didn’t have any money in it, that’s a story for another day. What we are looking at here are the findings of Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, who has just spoken about some of the irregularities that plague the ailing state-run enterprise.

The Mail & Guardian to dish the dirt:

When the Post Office signed a 10-year lease for a swanky new headquarters just outside Pretoria, Public protector Thuli Madonsela said on Tuesday, it was ripped off to the tune of just under R70-million. It was charged some 30% above market-related rental, and paid another R22-million it never should have for a building that stood empty.

And in that instance there is a villain.

The leasing deal had been “tainted by procurement irregularities and corruption” Madonsela said in her report titled Postponed Delivery, and a previous investigation by consultants KMPG had found “a corruption relationship between Centurion Vision Development”, the suppliers of the building, “and one of the [Post Office] officials who was at the centre of the transaction.”

Several high-level South African Post Office (SAPO) officials have variously resigned or been removed from the organisation since the investigation started in October 2011. The current board chairperson was appointed in August, and the chief executive in January.

Madonsela did not name the allegedly corrupt official in question, but hinted that the matter would be before the courts shortly. In December the Special Investigating Unit handed over a report on its own investigation into the Post Office. That report is not public, but Madonsela said the SIU had told her the Asset Forfeiture Unit should “become involved” “and that civil proceedings be instituted to challenge the validity of the lease contract”.

Looks like someone is about to be served, and Thuli is coming out swinging:

Madonsela directed the Post Office to “immediately” forward “evidence pointing to the contravention of the Prevention and Combatting of Corrupt Activities Act” to the police…

Madonsela did not specify the mechanism of corruption in the R161-million lease deal, but explained in some detail how it was concluded on the basis of lies and fabrications. The Post Office board had been told it would cost R14.2-million to move into the new offices, she said, while the actual cost was R110.5-million. Officials also lied about how big the new office was, how many parking bays it had, its state of readiness for occupation, and its environmental credentials.

So ripped off to the tune of R70 million, that’s quite intense. Tip of the iceberg good people, because the best is still come:

Far bigger than the suspect head-office leasing deal was the amount of money the Post Office spent with labour brokers, Madonsela also reported – on the basis of sometimes non-existent and sometimes expired contracts.

Between September 2001 and September 2014, Madonsela said, the Post Office paid various labour brokers R2.7-billion for jobs it had outsourced. A full R1.8 billion of that was split between just five companies.

“As these relationships were not properly regulated and the billing difficult if not impossible to control to prevent irregular scope creep, overbilling, overcharging and false billing, it cannot be said that the runaway expenditure involved did not contribute to SAPOs current liquidity and cash-flow problems,” Madonsela said.

She did admit that she could find no actual evidence showing financial indiscretions on that front, and neither could KPMG, but if we’ve learnt one thing these past few years it’s that where there’s smoke there’s usually fire.

[source:mg]