Forensic audit for Alexkor fund: DA

Forensic audit for Alexkor fund: DA
The Auditor General will conduct a forensic audit on the financial statements of the Namaqualand Development Agency (Namda), the DA said on Wednesday.

25 January 2012 | Sapa

JOHANNESBURG - The Auditor General will conduct a forensic audit on the financial statements of the Namaqualand Development Agency (Namda), the DA said on Wednesday.

"This comes after the agency failed for the fourth time to produce audited financial statements to Parliament's mineral resources portfolio committee," Democratic Appliance spokesman Hendrik Schmidt said in a statement.

"No statements have been produced since 2007."

The agency was formed to empower Namaqualand residents with royalties received from state-owned diamond mine Alexkor.

According to reports on Tuesday, Parliament's mineral resources committee threatened to report Alexkor development fund board members to the Hawks.

The committee was reportedly struggling to find out what had happened to R18 million the fund received from the mine.

"It should escalate up to the Hawks so that we can get to the truth of the matter," committee member Christopher Gololo told the SABC.

Hawks spokesman McIntosh Polela on Wednesday said the portfolio committee had not contacted them yet.

Schmidt said the portfolio committee meeting heard that at least two former Namda board members were affiliated to companies that had received loans of R150,000 and R200,000.

"The seriousness of this conflict of interest appeared lost on these former board members, who openly admitted in the meeting that they had received the loans."

He said an "elusive" R10 million was paid to Namda in 2004.

The board presented the portfolio committee meeting with statements of 29 people and entities who still owed the agency money which had been loaned to them.

"A quick calculation revealed that these figures only added up to around R2.8 million thus leaving approximately R7 million still unaccounted for," said Schmidt.

"This money was meant for projects that would create jobs and improve the living standards of the poor."

Schmidt said it was not known if there were ever any formal criteria established for how the Namda would operate.