Senior market risk analyst suspected of leaking information about PIC transactions to the media, commission told |
A senior market risk examiner was thought to have passed on sensitive internal information about transactions
ACTING executive head of risk and compliance at the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) Candace Abrahams said a senior market risk analyst was suspected of leaking to the media sensitive internal information relating to controversial investment transactions.
Abrahams, who was testifying before the PIC Commission of Inquiry, said the suspicions against risk analyst Tshifhango Ndadza arose after human resources told her to put an end to the swopping of roles by staff, which had existed from before she joined the PIC.
“The affected party in question was the senior market risk analyst, who was unhappy with my instruction to discontinue executing credit risk duties and to resume market risk duties,” she said.
“The party viewed the instruction negatively, as removal from executing the credit risk duties would also result in not having the privileges associated with the credit risk role.
“These included travel, both locally and internationally, as well as receipt of subsistence and travel funds.”
Abrahams told the commission that the suspicion and concern stemmed from the fact that there were PIC risk reports in the hands of the media, and in all instances these reports were all compiled by Ndadza.
“As the head of the department, I viewed this in a serious light and so did the senior market risk analyst himself as his personal reputation within the organisation was being brought into disrepute. However, I was doubtful as to whether he was responsible for leaking the said reports himself as I could not establish a motive as to why a staff member at his level would do so.
“I must highlight that for the most part, Ndadza’s skill and capability is in my opinion not in question. While working as a risk analyst in credit, he has conducted a good risk analysis, which is reflected in the risk reports that he has produced as well as in his conviction when presenting his reports,” she said.
Abrahams said, however, that given the situation she made a decision to limit and reduce the amount of credit risk work assigned to Ndadza. This was to try and understand whether the leaking of his reports was coincidental to the controversial nature of the investment transactions which he was a party to in compiling the risk reports.
“I did not communicate these reasons to him, which led to his feeling of being disenfranchised by my actions. His level of discontent under my leadership escalated after I instituted the chief executive’s instruction,” she said.
Abrahams told the commission that she had always been of the belief that the department was under-capacitated to effectively execute its duties and responsibilities. “However, I was not privy to the actual approved structure to understand the level of under-capacity until I was acting.”
She said in 2017 there was a request by Exco indicating that the organisation could not fill all the approved roles and that each department head should review and prioritise its critical roles.
“I became aware of the department’s approved structure across all of the functions after receiving the approved structure from human resources. As it stands, the total approved positions are 51. The current headcount stands at 22, leaving 29 positions vacant and resulting in a capacity rate of 43 percent and a vacancy rate of 57 percent,” said Abrahams.
She told the commission that at the current capacity level, the department was over-stretched and under-resourced with managerial skills to oversee day-to-day functions and duties of the rest of the team.
The extent of capacity constraints was also evident by the previous executive head’s stretching of resources across other functions.