Publications
Partners
A former auditor of Bosasa will shut down at the end of this month.
MasengViljoen, trading as the MVI Group, issued notices of retrenchment on June 30 to its 23 staff, saying it would close down at the end of this month.
Johan Kirsten, a MasengViljoen director, wrote in the restructuring letter, of which City Press has a copy, that: “The assurance service environment has changed drastically over the last year, with ever-increasing risks for the firm and directors in their personal capacity.
“Various directors resigned from the firm, which has resulted in MVI’s broad-based black economic empowerment level dropping from level three to level six with the next review,” he wrote.
Testimony at the Zondo commission exposed corruption allegations at Bosasa. The company’s former chief operating officer, Angelo Agrizzi, testified that the company was extensively involved in corrupt activities during the presidency of Jacob Zuma.
A source close to MasengViljoen said the fact that the company was a former Bosasa auditor had been enough to bring it down such that it was now shutting.
If this is true then MVI joins a growing list of firms, such as KPMG, Mckinsey & Company, Nkonki, Bain & Company and Gartner, that have either been taken down or had their reputation badly damaged by revelations of alleged corruption and involvement in state capture.
“They were the Bosasa auditors, so that’s why they are shutting down,” a source said.
When City Press contacted Kirsten about the closure of MasengViljoen and that the company was a former Bosasa auditor, he said: “Some people are reacting way out of proportion – it’s not the reality.”
In reply to questions from City Press, Kirsten denied that the closure was because of the company’s association with Bosasa.
“Some people are sensationalising this – it has nothing to do with that fact.
“We want to indicate that the current operational closure was based on a mutual decision of the directors … Past involvement of MasengViljoen with Bosasa was not a factor,” he said.
MasengViljoen’s involvement with Bosasa was from 2010 to the 2012 financial year, Kirsten said.
Those audits were dealt with by the company’s directors, Ryno Viljoen and Chris Joubert, who resigned in October 2010, and Andries Smits, who resigned from MasengViljoen in October 2014, he said.
MasengViljoen was replaced as Bosasa’s auditor by D’Arcy Herrman & Co, Kirsten said.
 |
| ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
