What Saica was hiding about top SA Airways man

Chartered accountant Robert Newsome, who is supposed to play a key role in reviving the struggling SA Airways (SAA), acted unprofessionally and without objectivity and integrity in a disciplinary matter relating to questionable procurement at the national carrier.

This is the finding of an independent disciplinary panel appointed by the SA Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) and handed down on June 11.

Saica has refused to make the findings public, despite its chief executive Terence Nombembe having discretion to do so.

Newsome joined SAA on May 1 on a one-year contract and will be paid R2.5 million for his services, according to DA’s shadow minister of finance Alf Lees.

Lees made the ruling against Newsome public yesterday, after Saica failed to respond to his request dated July 5 to do so.

The matter relates to a failure of Newsome to declare his conflict of interest as chairperson of a disciplinary committee of the Institute of Internal Auditors SA in dealing with a complaint against the chief audit executive of SAA, Siya Vilakazi.

Newsome had been a director of the institute since 1995, but has resigned following the Saica ruling against him.

He was found to have been conflicted due to his ties with Outsourced Risk and Compliance Assessment, which he joined as a director during the course of Vilakazi’s hearing.

The Saica panel also found that he acted unprofessionally in dealing with the complaint against Vilakazi and might have tried to mislead Saica.

In a letter to Nombembe, Lees says the position Newsome now holds at SAA “requires absolute professionalism and integrity”.

Saica asked that Newsome be excluded from its membership for five years, contribute R100 000 to the cost of the hearing and that the findings, sanctions and his name be published.

The panel instead ordered that he be reprimanded, imposed a fine of R50 000, but suspended for two years on condition that he gets training on conflict of interest and doesn’t conduct himself in contravention of the principles of integrity, objectivity and professional conduct for the next two years. He was also ordered to pay half of Saica’s legal costs. – Moneyweb