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Athletics SA (ASA) president Aleck Skhosana is not fit to hold any office in athletics and should be charged with gross misconduct.
This is according to the explosive findings of a forensic inquiry into alleged misappropriation of Lotto funds at KwaZulu-Natal Athletics (KZNA) when Skhosana was chairperson of the body between 2009 and 2012.
Skhosana refused to comment, saying he had not seen the report, which auditing firm Wesscor Forensic Consulting finalised following the investigation it carried out in September last year as a mandate from KZNA.
The 43-page report was served on the KZNA council yesterday, according to its incumbent president Sello Mokoena. He, however, refused to divulge more, saying it was an internal matter.
“The report is self-explanatory, especially with regards to how it came to life, its findings and recommendations,” Mokoena said in an emailed response on Friday.
The report recommends that a copy be sent to Athletics South Africa (ASA), through its vice-president Harold Adams, as well as to the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc), among other sports governing bodies.
Adams – who together with Skhosana serves in the Lotto distributing agency for sports and recreation – said he had not received any official documents from the auditors.
“We will, of course, comment upon receiving the document officially,” said Adams.
The report, which was leaked to City Press, says Skhosana “is eminently unfit to hold any office within athletics structures in South Africa or in any capacity where the management of funds is a component”.
The document also notes that Skhosana “signed some 234 blank cheques and/or the signing of 234 cheques without any regard to, or scrutiny of, the supporting documents attached to those cheques, resulting in a potential loss of some R4 856 002 during the period October 20, 2009 to June 28, 2011”.
But following his election as ASA’s new boss in June last year, Skhosana denied the allegations and told City Press at the time that “people just wanted to tarnish my image” because he was the front runner for the 2009, 2012 and 2013 ASA elections. He also said previous investigations had cleared him.
During these inquiries, current KZNA staff and consultants were interviewed, according to the report.
The document names the former financial and administration manager, as well as the accountant at the time, as allegedly having collaborated in perpetrating fraud.
Mokoena pointed out that it was “not the KZNA executive committee that recommended the forensic investigation but the full KZNA council – at its four-yearly general meeting in 2012 – as well as the National Lotteries Commission, as part of their project report in 2013”.
“Two reports, both with adverse findings – the first by auditors Aitken Lambert Elsworth in 2010, ordered by the council, and the second by the KwaZulu-Natal provincial treasury’s internal audit unit in 2011, ordered by the KZN department of sport and recreation and not the KZNA executive board – are encapsulated in the report,” Mokoena said.
The Elsworth report, issued on August 2011, identified documents supporting payments totalling close to R90 000 as having been forged.
The KZN provincial treasury’s report carried out an investigation to determine if an amount of R668 800 – provided by the KZN sports ministry to fund a 2010 national youth run in May that year – had been used validly by KZNA.
The latest report comes at a time when Skhosana is trying to turn around the financial position of ASA.
His board will hold office until next year.
Its mandate was to conclude a four-year term left halfway by the executive committee of former president James Evans when he was removed from office.
That committee was dissolved in November last year.
Skhosana’s board is being haunted by ghosts from the past.
These include a R10 million lawsuit against ASA by injured pole vaulter Jan Blignaut.
The federation’s assets narrowly survived being auctioned off early this year because of that case.
