CAA responds to report of alleged corruption in the organisation

Monday, 26 January 2004

An article was published in the Mail & Guardian of January 23 to 29 with serious allegations of financial mismanagement, inefficiency and management incompetence within the South African Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the authority charged with regulating the civil aviation industry in South Africa. The report was based mainly on an internal audit “report” produced by the CAA’s internal auditors, SizweNtsaluba, which was leaked to that newspaper.

However, the so-called report which was leaked to that newspaper was only a working document by the auditor and not a final report. Management of the CAA must still provide additional information to the auditors on the issues identified and either accept or dispel them with proof.

The Acting CEO of the CAA, Seboseso Machobane, said these findings still had to go through several stages before they could be said to have anything of material significance or indication to parties outside of the CAA. He said, “The basic rule of auditing requires management to respond to initial issues raised by the auditor. Thereafter a report must formally be presented to the Board through its Finance and Audit Committee, to either adopt or reject it.”

It must also be noted that this internal auditing process was initiated by the CAA’s Finance and Audit Committee as part of an internal process of continuous improvement to improve efficiency within the organization. The report in the Mail & Guardian suggests that this came about as a result of corruption and mismanagement within the organization, which is categorically refuted.

The Mail & Guardian also claims to have spoken to certain CAA senior officials who made certain statements about the organization. However, other than speaking to the Company Secretary, the CAA is not aware of other CAA senior officials who were officially approached by the Mail & Guardian for comment.

The Management of the CAA strongly believes in the principles of good corporate governance and is working hard to inculcate this in the organization. Also, as a growing public entity, the CAA is continuously finding ways of improving all the business processes so that we can deliver on our mandate.

Issued by:

Moses Seate

Senior Manager: Communications

Tel: (012) 426 0195

Cell: 082 857 9494.