Missing millions a ‘misperception’

The Board of provincial conservation agency Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife has called media and public speculation about an alleged loss of R22 million from its coffers, a misperception. This emerged at a press briefing held by the board at Ezemvelo’s headquarters

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The Board of provincial conservation agency Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife has called media and public speculation about an alleged loss of R22 million from its coffers, a misperception. This emerged at a press briefing held by the board at Ezemvelo’s headquarters in Pietermaritzburg in December. The annual audit for the 2006/07 period showed that the organisation, which took over the functioning of the old Natal Parks board, had R22 million unaccounted for. Chairperson of the board Dr Mbuyiselwa Patrick Sokhela said he would like to put the reports into perspective, and that the audit report from the KZN auditor-general’s office was wrong.

“The money is accounted for” “Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife facilitates several special purpose projects on behalf of the national Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism and the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs (KZN DAEA),” said Dr Sokhela. He explained that financial statements for those projects were audited by the auditing firm KPMG and Ezemvelo had a comprehensive list of all of them.

He said that Ezemvelo had historically always accounted for those projects independently of the financial statements of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife. This was done on the understanding that Ezemvelo was the implementing agent and not the owner of the specified projects. He said the previous KZN auditor-general had found no fault with doing it that way. The new KZN auditor-general, however, did not agree, which was why Ezemvelo had been given such a negative audit result. He pointed out that the auditor general’s concerns had been duly noted and the funds for the projects would in future be included in financial statements.

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Meanwhile, Mtholephi Mthimkhulu, MEC of the KZN DAEA, which governs the functioning of Ezemvelo, initiated an independent diagnostic audit of the conservation agency to further investigate where the money might be. That audit uncovered possible irregularities in the day-to-day running of Ezemvelo.

Mismanagement

The audit has led to allegations that there has been mismanagement of corporate credit cards in the supply chain and in the technical services and personnel departments. As many of Ezemvelo’s employees work in game reserves or parks, accommodation is often subsidised. There are allegations that there has been mismanagement of company housing and the day-to-day running of parks is alleged to have been disorganised, resulting in inaccurate or fraudulent billing at park entrances and accommodation.

As a result of these findings, the MEC has now initiated a forensic audit of the organisation. Dr Sokhela said that Mthimkhulu’s decision to relieve the board of Ezemvelo its accounting responsibilities, during the course of the forensic audit that is expected to last three to four months, did not mean that the board had been suspended as had been reported by some media. “The board will continue to perform its fiduciary and oversight functions, in line with its mandate in accordance with the KZN Nature Conservation Management Act,” he said.

The Ezemvelo board said it fully supports the MEC’s decision to do a forensic investigation and will cooperate fully with the process. It would also support any disciplinary or criminal proceedings against any persons found responsible for irregular conduct. – Lloyd Phillips