Arts Council CEO and CFO should be sacked following damning relief fund report
15 November 2021
The DA calls for the National Arts Council (NAC) CEO, Rosemary Mangope, and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Clifton Changfoot to be dismissed following the release of the forensic investigation report into the maladministration of Covid-relief funds.
The DA has long called for the report to be made public. Although this report revealed that there are no funds unaccounted for, it highlighted the extend of the mismanagement of crucial funds meant to support artists affected by the economic devastation brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown, including funding from the Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP).
Both the NAC CEO and CFO, as well as the senior project manager, Eugene Marillier, were found to be derelict in their duties with harsh criticism against Ms Mangope and Mr Changfoot in particular.
With regards to the CEO, the report found that Ms Mangope “failed to provide adequate oversight and was negligent in managing the execution of the administrative compliance processes which allowed 1 104 applications to be considered for evaluation when they ought to have been disqualified,” and she also “failed to act with fidelity, honesty and in the best interest of the NAC in managing the financial affairs of the PESP by not ensuring that the approved applications remained within the allocated budget of R285 million as opposed to the over-committed amount of R428,073,778. Ms Mangope, therefore, contravened Section 50 (1) (b) of the Public Finance Management Act (“PFMA”)…”