Business Day
*'Wrongdoing' at food Seta prompts probe* *Bekezela Phakathi, Business Day, Johannesburg, 21 November 2011*CAPE TOWN --- A forensic investigation was being conducted at the Food and Beverage Manufacturing Industry Sector Education and Training Authority (Seta), Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande said last week.
Earlier this year, Mr Nzimande said the Setas had become a haven for corruption, and that a task team would be set up to look into the authorities. He said the Seta model needed to be overhauled because it had created a private network of self-enrichment and possible corruption in the R8bn sector.
Replying to a parliamentary question on Friday, Mr Nzimande said a preliminary report had been presented to the accounting authority which indicated that there was prima facie evidence of wrongdoing at the Seta.
Mr Nzimande said on Friday that the forensic investigation at the Food and Beverage Manufacturing Industry Seta would cost less than R500000. He said that based on the recommendations in the final report, the accounting authority would finalise a plan of action to remedy the situation at the Seta.
The final report and plan of action would be made available to the executive authority once the forensic investigation had been concluded, Mr Nzimande said.
An official at the Seta, who did not want to be named, said that the forensic investigation would "most likely" be completed by the end of the month.
Democratic Alliance higher education and training spokesman Andricus van der Westhuizen welcomed the investigation.
"The biggest problem is that the Seta boards are interfering in the management of the Setas. We are saying the boards should focus on governance and not on management," he said.
Education expert Graeme Bloch said on Friday that the Setas had generally "become a place for looting". "There has been no direction in terms of what the Setas are meant to be doing.... I would say they need to be scrapped, but this call has not gained much ground," Mr Bloch said.
He said there was a need to investigate each Seta in order to curtail corrupt practices.
"I would say he (Mr Nzimande) is on the right track by investigating this Seta," Mr Bloch said.
Last year, Mr Nzimande proposed extensive changes to the Seta system, which included the reduction of the number of Setas from 23 to 21.
Several would also be amalgamated to secure greater efficiency, which would result in six new Setas being established.
The Setas are funded by 1% of the payrolls of companies with a profit of more than R500000.
Mr Nzimande has also said he wanted the Setas to have one constitution and to reduce the size of their boards.
Labour Court Judge Annelie Basson ruled in May that Mr Nzimande did not have the legal authority to impose a new constitution on the Services Seta, and that the constitution he had tried to enforce breached the Skills Development Act.
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