Stephan Hofstatter
13 July 2009
Johannesburg — AFRICAN National Congress (ANC) MP Salam Abram has challenged Land Bank CEO Phakamani Hadebe to come clean on whether politicians and bank employees or their friends and relatives benefited improperly from a R100m AgriBEE fund it controlled.
"The bank is seen as a place that one can join and start looting," he told Parliament's agriculture, fishing and forestry committee last week. "We need to know (who) looted."
Hadebe told MPs all information on alleged corruption had been passed on to police.
Hadebe outlined progress made since he took over the bank last July after it was removed from the Department of Agriculture and placed under Treasury amid allegations of corruption.
IT faults that allowed corruption to go undetected had been fixed, 68 critical posts had been filled, R541m on the bank's non-performing loan book had been collected, and pre-legal recoveries of R533m had been achieved, he told MPs. The figures were being audited.
Last month Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan approved a R3,5bn lifeline to recapitalise the bank, signalling Treasury's confidence in its turnaround plan. Most of the funds would go to projects that created jobs and stimulated rural economies.
But Abrams warned it was not enough for Hadebe to report on the bank's achievements.
"We must also look at where the rot set in, (but Hadebe) has not taken us into his confidence."
He requested that the committee be supplied with a report for a follow-up parliamentary hearing detailing who had been charged, the status of police investigations and names of any politicians, board members, employees or their associates who had benefited from the fund.
In April police spokesman Phuti Setati told Business Day that fraud charges linked to the AgriBEE fund were being investigated against "certain individuals", but declined to name them.
Hadebe also declined to provide Business Day with names or details.
The AgriBEE fund was originally set up by the a griculture department to support emerging farmers, and R50m was earmarked for equity and R50m for enterprise development.
Payments were disbursed for projects on department instructions , from a special account in the Land Bank, until they were frozen following a review of transactions last year by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
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