Usaasa officials leave agency without answering to graft cases

The Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa (Usaasa) is looking to tighten its lax consequences management regime, which has seen officials leave the organisation without having had to answer to serious allegations of wrongdoing, including corrupt acts.

The agency — a public entity established to bridge the digital divide by ensuring that poor, rural and marginalised communities have equal access to affordable telecommunications services, broadcasting and ICT services — is sitting with cold cases going back 11 years.

The unresolved cases concern instances of irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, with some matters dating back to 2015. Most of these matters were never investigated and kept on being rolled over from one year to the next without any resolution ― a state of affairs that has seen the entity attract negative audit outcomes.

Some matters were investigated, but “nothing was done after that” — by the entity’s own admission — a situation that has cemented a culture of noncompliance which has become “rampant”, fuelled by a lack of consequence management.

To remedy this anomaly, the agency, which has been marred by leadership instability for more than five years, is now looking to hire external experts to revisit the cold cases.

These historical matters involve complex financial and procurement transactions and implicate some individuals who are no longer in the employ of the agency, consequently leading to a protracted investigation process

—  Keitumetse Hlahatsi, Usaasa spokesperson

The consultants will be expected to, among other things, determine which employees were responsible for the offences and compile evidence supporting the investigation reports.

Usaasa spokesperson Keitumetse Hlahatsi said the agency’s management was determined to right the wrongs of the past and, where criminal conduct was suspected, refer cases directly to law enforcement agencies for prosecution.

Hlahatsi said the agency remained in co-operation with law enforcement agencies as these legal processes reached their final conclusion.

“These historical matters involve complex financial and procurement transactions and implicate some individuals who are no longer in the employ of the agency, consequently leading to a protracted investigation process,” she said.

“The current leadership is committed to resolving these cases. To that end, efforts have been made to partner with specialised forensic investigation firms to finally resolve the matters. The resignations of some of the implicated employees stalled the consequence management processes.”

Hlahatsi said the agency acknowledged that a portion of its irregular expenditure register consisted of legacy cases that date back more than five years.

Usaasa has operated without a permanent board since 2018, a leadership instability compounded by the excessive use of acting appointments at the executive level, including that of the CEO

The parliamentary portfolio committee on communications & digital technologies in January expressed serious concern about the prolonged instability in leadership and governance at Usaasa and the resultant low staff morale.

This followed an oversight visit at the agency to engage on governance and institutional stability, financial management and audit outcomes, as well as ongoing challenges related to poor project planning and implementation.

Usaasa has operated without a permanent board since 2018, a leadership instability compounded by the excessive use of acting appointments at the executive level, including that of the CEO.

During the visit, the agency’s staff took legislators through their poor experience at the entity. Workers raised serious concerns about the lack of basic tools of the trade, indicating that items such as laptops and cellphones were last issued about 10 years ago.

Hlahatsi said she could not at this stage tell when the consultants would be able to conclude their work.

“We cannot provide a definitive date for the resolution of all cases, as each investigation differs in terms of complexity. However, leadership treats these matters with the utmost urgency and has designed a structured approach to address the backlog.”