MKMVA media statement welcoming the final report by the Public Protector about her findings concerning the CIEX
20 June 2017
REPORT ON THE R1 125 BILLION RAND ‘LIFEBOAT’ THAT ABSA RECEIVED
MKMVA welcomes the clear and unambiguous conclusions and findings in the final Report of the Public Protector on the ALLEGED FAILURE BY GOVERNMENT TO RECOVER FUNDS
BORROWED TO ABSA
In her report the Public Protector found that the South African government breached its constitutional duty to spend public money wisely when it made no effort to act on the findings of the 1997-1999 Ciex Report in which it was found that the Reserve Bank irregularly gave money to Bankorp – a predecessor of ABSA. The report by the UK recovery and investigations agency CIEX found that a so-called ‘lifeboat’ running into billions of Rands had been given to Bankorp/ABSA by the South African government. The findings of the CIEX Report had been known to government for more than a decade now and yet the government, and specifically the Reserve Bank, took no action to reserve this huge amount of money. Yesterday Advocate Mkhwebane found that the correct amount of the illegal gift to Bankorp Ltd/Absa totals R 1. 125 billion. She pointed out that two investigations into the matter established that the financial aid given to Bankorp was irregular.