Bain SA boss removed

Bain & Company will set aside the more than R164 million interest it earned from the SA Revenue Service (Sars) and remove its head in South Africa after an internal review found the work did not meet the company’s standards.

The Boston-based consultancy firm is among a number of international companies, including KPMG, McKinsey & Company and SAP SE, to be swept up in allegations of misconduct and corruption for work done during former president Jacob Zuma’s scandal-ridden tenure.

President Cyril Ramaphosa suspended Sars head Tom Moyane and appointed a panel to investigate whether the tax agency was being properly managed.

The commission of inquiry, headed by retired Judge Robert Nugent, has heard testimony that Bain’s work for Sars weakened what was once an efficient organisation. Sars paid the management consultancy firm to restructure and overhaul its operating model in an attempt to boost revenue collection under Moyane. The agency has missed its tax target every year since the implementation of the new structure in 2015.

“We don’t want to benefit from work that was used to further a different agenda than was intended,” Bain said on the website of its South African unit.

Tiaan Moolman, a member of the Bain partnership in South Africa, will take over the day-to-day operations of the local unit from Vittorio Massone to allow Massone to focus his time on cooperating with the commission. Massone remains a partner. Bain has appointed Baker McKenzie to lead an independent investigation to understand what happened, it said. “To reinforce the independence of the investigation and Bain’s commitment to addressing any new facts, we have established an oversight committee made up of senior global Bain partners and outside directors.”

McKinsey earlier this year agreed to repay power utility Eskom about R1 billion it earned in consultancy fees after Eskom failed to follow procurement laws. Auditor KPMG also offered to repay the money it earned from the tax agency and has been losing customers and staff since disclosing it did work for the Gupta family. – Bloomberg

Moneyweb

President Cyril Ramaphosa has slammed the conduct of the so-called construction mafia and called for consequences in situations where individuals “disrupt work projects demanding a 30% stake”.

Moneyweb earlier reported that the “construction mafia” has been disrupting construction projects countrywide, demanding 30% of the project value be awarded to local companies.

In some instances the groups, calling themselves business forums, seek control of the full 30%, aiming to distribute jobs and contracts among local workers and businesspeople themselves.

The SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) has said its

We don’t want to benefit from work that was used to further a different agenda than was intended.

Bain & Company