Cipro whistleblowers take hits

Johannesburg - Despite promises by Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies that whistleblowers at the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (Cipro) would be protected, a senior Cipro official was suspended and subjected to a disciplinary hearing in this regard on April 4.

Davies repeated the undertaking on April 8, and on April 9 the official was reappointed.

The suspension of the official, who was responsible for risk management, related to information supplied to the police in October 2009 as part of the investigation into the controversial awarding of a R153m contract for a new electronic content-management system to the unknown company VALORit.

The charge sheet states that the worker signed a secrecy agreement in August 2009, and should therefore not have disclosed this information to the police.

The charge apparently relates to the supply of confidential salary information about an employee, presumably suspended head of information Michael Twum-Darko.

Twum-Darko, who has long had ties to Keith Sendwe, the Cipro CEO currently on indefinite sick leave, was apparently appointed in a much higher salary bracket than was advertised for the position.

Twum-Darko played a key part in the awarding of the tender to VALORit, even though JSE-listed Faritec had made a bid of R60m. He was suspended in March.

The official concerned was not the first Cipro whistleblower to get into trouble. Melanie Bernard-Fryer, head of operations and the first Cipro employee to inform Tshediso Matona, the director-general of trade and industry, of alleged fraud in the VALORit-tender, resigned with immediate effect in March.

It is understood that she had been put under unbearable pressure for her role in exposing allegations of fraud related to the VALORit-tender, which had been signed off by Matona.

- Sake24.com

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