Cricket South Africa Board member Ajay Sooklal, who cried foul after being asked to explain his testimony at an inquiry into the financial affairs of the body, is now himself under investigation for allegedly bungling more than half a million rands.
Published: Feb 07, 2012, 11:05 PM (IST)
Edited: Feb 07, 2012, 11:05 PM (IST)
CSA’s recently appointed compliance secretariat manager, Pume Canca, called for an explanation from Sooklal for Ajay Sooklal’s claims © Getty Images
Johannesburg: Feb 7, 2012
Cricket South Africa Board member Ajay Sooklal, who cried foul after being asked to explain his testimony at an inquiry into the financial affairs of the body, is now himself under investigation for allegedly bungling more than half a million rands.
In the latest controversy at the embattled CSA, Sooklal’s claims in two separate invoices to CSA last year came under the spotlight and questions were now being asked about how clean he was when he gave damning evidence against CSA on the lack of corporate governance.
In the invoices, leaked to local media, Sooklal, who is also the CSA board’s legal and governance committee chairman, claims over R600 000 for expenses which include the costs of faxes, text messages, telephone calls, e-mails, parking and tollgate fees to meet clients in Port Elizabeth and at CSA offices in Johannesburg.
CSA’s recently appointed compliance secretariat manager, Pume Canca, called for an explanation from Sooklal for these claims.
“The board would like you to explain why you charged professional fees in respect of matters set in your invoices, when the work was supposed to be done in your capacity as a member of the board’s legal and governance committee,” Canca said in a letter to Sooklal which also called for an explanation regarding his evidence at the inquiry instituted by sports minister Fikile Mbalula to investigate the financial affairs of CSA.
The inquiry followed two years of wrangling over huge IPL II bonuses paid to himself and other CSA staff by CSA chief executive Gerald Majola, who admitted to breaches of corporate governance during his evidence at the inquiry late last year, citing his naivety on such issues.
This was despite later evidence from corporate governance expert Mervyn King that he had undertaken a workshop on corporate governance with CSA staff that included Majola before the second season of the IPL which was played in South Africa in 2009 because of security concerns around elections at the time in India.
Sooklal decried the lack of corporate governance at CSA in his testimony and claimed that he was being victimised by CSA because of this, but CSA denied this even as questions are now being asked whether Sooklal did not also try to take advantage of the lack of corporate governance with the claims he submitted.
Labour law specialist Sandile July said if Sooklal had done work for the CSA or its affiliates he could charge a fee only if this had been done outside his time spent at the CSA, and then too only with prior approval from the board.
Attempts to contact Sooklal for comment were futile as his telephone went unanswered. (PTI)
