GPAA's forensic probe sparks concerns of a witch hunt against whistleblowers

The Government Pensions Administration Agency (GPAA) has confirmed it will conduct a forensic investigation to uncover the source of leaked internal documents, a move that has ignited fierce criticism from employee representatives who deem it a “witch hunt against whistleblowers.”

The embattled agency has been rocked by allegations of serious financial mismanagement of pension funds amounting to more than R500 million after an audit being prepared for the financial year-end flagged administration issues. 

The GPAA has written to the chairperson of the price quotation committee seeking approval to appoint Nexus Forensics to conduct an investigation on the allegations of unethical conduct of the removal of confidential information without authorization. 

This comes after Business Report’s initial story in June about the preliminary internal audit report compiled by Abacwaningi Business Solution (ABS) Audit & Advisory Services, which found a raft of key governance concerns and financial mismanagement in a number of contracts worth millions of rand. 

The GPAA is a government component that reports to the Minister of Finance and administers the pension affairs of approximately 1.7 million government employees and pensioners, as well as the affairs of their spouses and dependants.

According to the GPAA, Nexus will be tasked with investigating how internal documents of the GPAA ended up in the hands of the Public Service and Commercial Union (PSCU) secretary-general Tahir Maepa, as well as Business Report and its journalist, Siphelele Dludla.

“The key deliverables expected from this investigation will be to:

• Identify the GPAA officials who had access to the 2024/25 draft Internal Audit report.
• Identify the GPAA officials who printed the 2024/25 draft Internal Audit report and any other documents related to the publications.
• Establish if the 2024/25 draft Internal Audit report was shared electronically with external parties.
• Establish whether there is a GPAA official/s who assisted Mr Maepa and Dludla to obtain confidential documents of the GPAA in contravention of the POPI Act, and cyber security laws of the Republic of South Africa.
• The appointed service provider will be required to image +/- 7 devices of the suspected employees.
• Interview GPAA officials who might have played a role on the sharing of confidential documents with external parties, including the one suspended for insubordinate (sic).
• Establish and advice by virtue of an investigation reports if there are any breach of any existing contract, policy, prescript and law.
• Advice if, based on investigation conducted, any further action that may be taken by the GPAA.” 

The GPAA further stated that it will obtain and review relevant SOP’s, policies, delegations of authority, and other information relevant to the procurement of this internal audit report by external players in order to understand who was supposed to have access to the report. 

It said it will review email correspondence that was shared among roleplayers at the time when the draft audit report was issued and discussed, including the attendance registers of all the meetings where the same report was tabled. 

However, GPAA spokesperson Mack Lewele said the investigation will not begin immediately. 

“The process will not start until the acting CEO has familiarized himself with the issues and is satisfied that this is the appropriate approach,” Lewele said.

The GPAA has been accused of paying R270m to contractors for refurbishing a building it allegedly has no legal access to, linked to a 10-year office lease agreement estimated at R1 billion.

Other allegations against the agency include squandering at least R148m for the leasing of 11 mobile office buses and paying more than R100m for duplicated ICT projects.

Last week, finance minister Enoch Godongwana appointed Job Stadi Mngomezulu as acting CEO of the GPAA after placing Kedibone Madiehe on precautionary suspension with full pay. 

In response to Business Report, Treasury gave a similar response to the GPAA.

“Yes, we can confirm that there is a process to investigate the leaking of documents. The cost of the investigation is R260 000,” Treasury said. 

“As you are aware, we have a newly-appointed acting CEO who is currently familiarising himself with the relevant issues including those related to your query. As a result, we are currently unable to respond to your inquiries. We hope this is helpful and look forward to engaging with you once the acting CEO has gained complete understanding of the situation.” 

Meanwhile, the PSCU said it was outraged by reports that the GPAA has authorized a R260 000 on a “so-called forensic investigation that is in fact a witch hunt against whistleblowers”.

Maepa said this project was not about accountability but was being driven by entrenched networks loyal to the suspended CEO, who allegedly continues to exert influence through her proxies.

“The PSCU notes that the acting CEO has inherited a deeply compromised organization. We do not believe he is the architect of this witch hunt, but we caution him: he is surrounded by individuals who are working to protect their own corrupt interests and to discredit whistleblowers,” Maepa said.

“The Minister of Finance must support the acting CEO by urgently considering placing the GPAA under administration. Without external intervention, the entrenched criminal network will continue to undermine reform efforts from within.

“The GPAA remains at a crossroads. Either it can be turned into a safe and credible agency that serves pensioners honestly, or it will remain a playground for looters who manipulate processes to punish those who tell the truth.”

BUSINESS REPORT