‘It’s a complicated investigation’ – NPA on Steinhoff corruption case
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is adamant that those who were involved in the collapse of Steinhoff will feel the long arm of the law.
The multi-national retailer was plunged into a crisis in 2017 when its stock dropped dramatically amid allegations of fraud against the company’s Chief Executive Officer Markus Jooste.
Former chief financial officer Ben la Grange and former executives Dirk Schreiber and Stehan Grobler are also on the list of the individuals implicated in a report by audit firm PriceWaterHouseCoopers (PwC).
The report found that a small group of former Steinhoff executives - with the help of none-Steinhoff executives - structured and implemented various transactions over a number of years which inflated the profit and assets of the group.
The country’s law enforcement has been accused of dragging its feet in its investigations of the Steinhoff collapse.
NPA boss Shamila Batohi told members of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts in Parliament (Scopa) that the prosecuting body is faced with a shortage of resources.
“It’s understandable that everyone, including us and we have the ability to actually move it along, is anxious for this to get to a point where if the evidence shows sufficient to prosecute, that we do proceed,” Batohi said on Wednesday.
“It has taken a long time, it is a complicated investigation, but I must say as well, and we sound like stuck records, that there have been serious resource issues with regard to having dedicated resources, investigators that are not carrying other matters to ensure that these cases move.”
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Red flags were raised recently when it emerged that Steinhoff paid PwC to investigate the retailer.
Batohi defended the decision, saying there was nothing untoward about the move.
“The practise of forensic accounting firms being commissioned by companies to deal with these kinds of forensic analyses and forensic exercises is not unusual and in this particular case, PwC was involved for a long term in terms of finalising a report on the mandate of Steinhoff.
“There was no possibility that they would want to, so to speak, negatively influence the forensic investigation process. This was discussed by the various prosecutors and there were safeguards put in place,” she added.
Head of Hawks Godfrey Lebeya vowed law enforcement would be hot on the heels of anyone fingered in investigations.
“To whoever have got anything to answer, whoever we may have detected that has done anything wrong that will be a matter that will be considered by the NPA,” Lebeya said to Scopa members.
“We will not be excluding anyone or do anything. It’s just that I need not be dealing with the names.”
Earlier this month, Jooste was among four people charged in Germany for accounting crimes.
