Cipro: implicated senior official gets more pay

Andricus van der Westhuizen, Shadow Minister of Trade and Industry
1 December 2009

In response to a parliamentary question posed by the DA, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) revealed that it paid Cipro (the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office) Chief Information Officer (CIO), Michael Twum-Darko more than the allocated salary band – an amount in excess of R 43 770 per annum. This means that Twum-Darko was appointed at a higher salary range than advertised.

The DTI claims that this was done because “suitable candidates could not be found…due to non-market related salaries”. However, this line of argument is dubious at best. Had the revised salary-band been advertised, then there would obviously have been more interest. However, it appears that the higher salary was not advertised, and if this is the case then Twum-Darko received the benefits of a higher salary without having to compete for it.

Notably, an earlier response to a parliamentary question by the DA also revealed that his salary thereafter increased by a further 19% within the first few months of him taking up the post. One of the reasons given for his bloated starting salary was that Twum-Darko would not qualify for an additional 1% annual increase. This does not make sense, taking into account that his salary is reported to have further increased by double digit figures in January 2009, some four months after his last increase.

This situation is deeply problematic – Twum-Darko has been implicated in a serious allegation of tender rigging before a court of law. He was a foreign national at the time of his appointment and, according to the rules of the NIA, could not obtain the necessary security clearance for his post.

Earlier this year, criminals hacked into the Cipro database in order to change company information so as to receive their tax paybacks from SARS. This would not have happened if Cipro had adequate IT systems in place. However, allegations have been leveled against Twum-Darko that he rigged the Electronic Content Management (ECM) tender by awarding it to an inexperienced IT service provider (ValorIT) in exchange for a payment in cash. 

The situation has deteriorated to such an extent that senior personnel have been dismissed, allegedly for speaking to the police regarding the investigation into the alleged tender rigging. Rocco de Lorenzo, the Risk manager at Cipro was suspended four two weeks ago after cooperating with the SAPS.

In response to these claims, the Auditor-General has stated that it would release a report on the forensic investigation into the Cipro ECM tender within three weeks. This release is eagerly anticipated by the DA - the DA has been posing parliamentary questions in this regard and will continue to do so in order to extricate corrupt officials from such a crucial institution for South African commerce.