ACTING CFE RECRUITED FOR ACSA

AFTER months of allegations of flouting its procurement processes, the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) has roped in Dirk Kunz as acting chief financial officer as it seeks to clean up its procurement systems.

Kunz succeeds Maureen Manyama, who vacated her positions of chief financial officer and executive director of the board on Thursday.

This move comes four months after three key executives were placed on suspension after allegations of irregularities in the procurement processes at Acsa, while a disciplinary process was under way against the acting chief executive, Bongani Maseko.

In September, the company’s board suspended procurement manager Percy Sithole, general manager of regional airports Jabulani Khambule and legal counsel Bongani Machobane.

The board, however, controversially decided to let Maseko continue in his role despite also being implicated in the alleged irregularities.

Disciplinary steps

The upheaval in Acsa’s top management followed a report from Dr VS Mncube Consulting, which investigated the company’s supply chain procedures and found several executives had contravened the Public Finance Management Act, and ordered disciplinary steps to be taken against them.

Kunz, a trained chartered accountant, comes to the position with more than eight years’ experience at the parastatal that operates the country’s nine airports, including OR Tambo and King Shaka International.

He has previously served as group manager for corporate finance.

Acsa has also credited him with introducing a 10-year financial planning regime to facilitate improvements in the permission to levy airport charges, consultation and application process.

Acsa on Friday said it had confidence that Kunz was up to the tasks of his new responsibilities and that it had started the search for a new CFO.