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Cape Town - Cipro's chief information officer, Dr Michael Twum-Darko, is believed to have been placed on special leave as a consequence of his alleged fraudulent involvement in the awarding of a R153m contract for an electronic content-management system.
According to DA MP Andricus van der Westhuizen, late Friday evening an SMS was sent to senior members of Cipro management to confirm that Twum-Darko had been asked to take four months' special leave. Dr Elsabe Conradie, head of communications at Cipro, told Sake24 that Twum-Darko had indeed been put on special leave.
Twum-Darko was apparently significantly involved in awarding a contract to IT company VALORit last year.
Sake24 previously reported that the allegations of irregularities related to VALORit arose from a civil claim against VALORit instituted by Abe Mbulawa, a director at Mantra Consulting.
VALORit allegedly had failed to pay Mantra Consulting R10.5m for work related to the Cipro contract.
The management system that VALORit was to have implemented was specifically intended to counter fraud in the registration of company names and in the creation of false directors' details on the Cipro database.
According to Van der Westhuizen, the award to VALORit had led to a number of operating problems on Cipro's database last year because of the information technology company's lack of expertise.
The DA also disclosed other allegations regarding Twum-Darko, including that his salary exceeded the target range within which it should have fallen and that at the time of his appointment he had still been a foreign citizen and had not received the necessary security clearances in time.
An independent investigation has meanwhile been launched within Cipro to examine alleged fraud and corruption.
An internal memorandum declares that whistleblowers will be protected.
Van der Westhuizen says the investigation was requested by Dr Rob Davies, the Minister of Trade & Industry.
The chief executive, Keith Sendwe, is also currently on special leave which he told Sake24 was sick leave.
- Sake24.com
For more business news in Afrikaans, go to Sake24.com.