Bain is back in the club of heavyweight companies

Almost three years after being shunned by the company that represents CEOs of the largest companies in SA over its alleged involvement in state capture, Bain & Co is back in the fold at Business Leadership SA (BLSA).

Bain, one of the top consulting firms globally, was among BLSA members that on Monday signed a letter to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson urging an end to travel restrictions that have kept SA’s tourism in the doldrums and stand in the way of any recovery during the traditionally busy summer months.

The firm was mired in allegations of state capture related to work it did reorganising the SA Revenue Service (Sars) during the reign of former commissioner Tom Moyane.

Retired judge Robert Nugent, appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2018 to look into governance failures at the once successful institution, was scathing about the company’s conduct and accused it of failing to co-operate, something it vehemently denied.

Amid the controversy, it was kicked out of BLSA, the umbrella body representing almost all of SA’s biggest listed companies, in September 2018. BLSA became one of the most vocal critics of state capture during the second half of Jacob Zuma’s presidency.

BLSA CEO Busi Mavuso told Business Day that the organisation had decided to bring Bain back into its fold following an independent investigation by law firm Baker McKenzie, which detailed Bain’s involvement at bringing Sars to its knees and the interventions that the management firm has since put in place following the scandal to remedy the situation.

These included firing its former managing partner in SA, Vittorio Massone, and replacing him with Tiaan Moolman.

BLSA’s decision to suspend Bain was precipitated by its response to state capture, Mavuso said. “We demanded that all the officials that have been involved in the state capture project [at Bain] be decisively dealt with.”

Mavuso said the decision to lift Bain’s suspension was taken over a three-year period during which time BLSA held various discussions with listed companies, multinationals based in SA and Bain itself over the scandal.

“Quite a few SA companies have actually accepted the interventions that have been put in place. They [Bain] have gone back to being a service provider. We actually spoke to a whole lot of companies that have agreed to use the services of Bain again,” she said.

Athol Williams, a former employee and consultant at Bain who was brought in to try to fix the company in 2019 — only to leave six months later accusing it of being insincere — said the company had not done enough to make amends despite paying back the money it earned on work done at Sars.

“They pay back the fees to Sars and so they conned us into thinking that paying the fees would solve the damage,” he said. “That’s not the same issue … All you have to do is go to the Nugent commission report.” In its final report, the commission noted that Bain had paid back R217m but said the company had not made a full disclosure.

Bain referred questions to BLSA.

WE DEMANDED THAT ALL OFFICIALS THAT HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN STATE CAPTURE BE DECISIVELY DEALT WITH

Busi Mavuso BLSA CEO

R217m paid back to Sars by Bain for the company’s role in governance failures

2018 the year in which Bain was kicked out of BLSA