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Cape Town - Members of the Bonitas medical scheme need not be concerned that their money has gone to waste, because this is far from the case.
This is according to Bonitas acting CEO Gerhard van Emmenis - as indicated in court documents the fund submitted on Tuesday to oppose proposed curatorship by the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS).
South Africa's third-largest medical scheme is in the line of fire after its board of trustees asked Deloitte to compile a report on certain property investments.
As a consequence of the report in July 2009, the CMS requested an investigation into Bonitas' finances.
This month the CMS submitted an urgent application to the South Gauteng High Court to have the fund placed under curatorship. owing to alleged corporate mismanagement. The contention is that about R80m is involved.
According to Van Emmenis the current board of trustees is being unnecessarily harassed. It is this board that in fact requested the Deloitte report, he says, adding that it has already solved some of the problems or is in the process of doing so.
Most of the CMS's allegations arise, according to Van Emmenis, from the actions of previous boards of trustees.
The Louis Pasteur investment, which involves R38m, dates back to 1996 and has nothing to do with the current board. It's not clear what any curator could do that the new board of trustees is not already doing, he says.
Various irregularities that concern the CMS are directly related to the previous CEO, Bafana Nkosi, who resigned this month.
It is alleged, among other things, that he negligently handled certain property investments, approved payments for which he was not authorised, and had overpaid a family member serving as a property project leader for the fund.
Van Emmenis reckons the scheme's problems will be easier to resolve following Nkosi's resignation.
The court case that will decide on curatorship for Bonitas is expected to begin on March 9.
- Sake24.com
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