Gigaba set to appoint new Treasury chiefs

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The vacancies include the heads of public finance, international relations, the chief procurement officer, the Office of the Accountant-General and the head of the Treasury's Government Technical Advisory Centre. Two arose from recent retirements: Andrew Donaldson as head of the Government Technical Advisory Centre and Kenneth Brown as chief procurement officer.

Several of the other vacancies have existed for some time.

Interviews were held three weeks ago and the process was still in progress, said Mayihlome Tshwete, spokesman for finance minister Malusi Gigaba.

The appointments will need to be approved by the Cabinet.

The outcome will be of keen interest to the investment and business community and credit ratings agencies, which will see it as an indicator of the extent to which Gigaba intends to ensure continuity at the Treasury. A decision by Treasury director-general Dondo Mogajane last week to reshuffle three officials in acting positions, including acting chief procurement officer Schalk Human, has caused unease in the department and opposition parties, who interpreted it as a cleanout of staff loyal to former finance minister Pravin Gordhan.

The position of chief procurement officer is regarded as particularly important, as the office plays a role in overseeing and monitoring government procurement. The previous incumbent, Brown, faced death threats and was smeared in the media.

The move was preceded by a hearing in Parliament on Tuesday at the standing committee on public accounts in which Mogajane and Gigaba were grilled over the mismanagement of the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS), a decade-long incomplete project to modernise government information technology systems.

The auditor-general has flagged the IFMS for various lapses in internal controls and is in discussion with Treasury officials on whether to give the department's annual financial statements qualified status.

The previously Gupta-owned television channel ANN7 last week blamed Gordhan and Human for the IFMS bungle, accusing them of corruption.

In a special report on the IFMS on the night of the parliamentary hearings, ANN7 repeatedly displayed Gordhan's and Human's pictures with headlines alleging wrongdoing and the loss of billions of rand.

In an interview on Sunday, Mogajane said his actions had been misinterpreted by Treasury staff and he intended to explain it further when he returned from China, where he is attending the Brics summit.

Mogajane said Human had on several occasions asked to be relieved as acting chief procurement officer. His appeals had "become more earnest" to be moved over the past week following the ANN7 broadcasts.

He said he had asked Human to provide him with assistance in dealing with the IFMS. Human had not applied for the permanent position of chief procurement officer, he said. More significant, he said, was the redeployment of Lindi Bodewig, who had headed the project management office of the IFMS, and Jayce Nair, who was acting accountant-general. Both were involved in the IFMS, now a priority in the Treasury.

Mogajane said in moving the two back to their old jobs and appointing new people to act in these positions, "I am making sure that when it comes to the IFMS that we reposition ourselves". There have been lapses and there are challenges". By resetting that button, I hope to get a new injection of some kind," he said.

The Treasury had failed to allocate the necessary resources to the IFMS before, he said. Bodewig had worked on the project for only half of her time and the other three people in the team were junior, with the remainder being consultants.

Mogajane said he had stopped all payments on the IFMS while he reviewed the project.

The officials appointed to replace the three will also be in acting positions until permanent appointments are made. They include Willie Mathebula as acting chief procurement officer; Zanele Mxunyelwa as acting accountant-general; and Phila Mhlakaza as acting IFMS head.

Mathebula has applied for the permanent chief procurement officer position.