In what amounted to a severe slap on the wrist, Cricket South Africa’s chief executive Gerald Majola will be made to “go through processes” with some of the organisation’s senior financial officials to atone for an “error of judgment” that saw him and 39 administrative staff receive bonuses that weren’t properly disclosed.
One of the recommendations of a three-man review committee established to investigate the payment of bonuses to senior Cricket SA employees was that Majola would be “formally cautioned” to ensure that all payments received by him would be authorised by the appropriate committee.
The recommendations also state that Majola report “promptly and comprehensively” to CSA’s Remuneration Committee (Remco) all amounts received from sources other than CSA.
In a separate review, which ran parallel to the inquest over bonuses, it was found that Majola would have to pay back more than R28000 to CSA incurred as a result of his children accompanying him on trips.
The review committee, chaired by CSA vice-president AK Khan, was also made up of CSA finance chairman John Bester and Johan Blair, chairman of the organisation’s audit committee. It was set up after allegations were made prior to the publication of CSA’s financial statements that “unauthorised and undisclosed” bonuses were paid to senior CSA staff, with the largest chunks of money going to Majola and former CSA chief operating officer Don McIntosh.
Majola received over R1,7-million and McIntosh over R1,4-million as reward for South Africa’s successful hosting of the Indian Premier League and the International Cricket Council’s Champions Trophy event last year. Majola had paid back his bonuses when the inquiry was established.
Though CSA’s Remco was aware of the bonuses and in fact authorised them, the review committee found that Remco was not “aware of the extent of the event bonuses received by Majola and McIntosh”.
The management of both the IPL and the Champions Trophy were done separately from CSA and both events had their own office bearers and lines of authority, with McIntosh appointed as tournament director for the Champions Trophy. The same held true for the IPL, which was effectively run by the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
Khan announced that Ray Mali, Bester, Blair and the chairman of the remuneration committee – a position which is currently vacant – “would take Majola through processes so that this type of error of judgemnt does not occur again in the future”.
Bester explained that Majola’s travel costs were also scrutinised following a leaked report – alleged to be part of the submission made by CSA president Mtutuzeli Nyoka to the review committee – last weekend when it was alleged Majola over-spent on his travel budget and flew his wife and children around the world to cricket events.
In terms of his contract, Majola has a travel budget totalling R1,4-million, which entitles him to trips both domestic and internationally and which can include his wife.
According to Bester, Majola’s travel expenses for the last financial year amounted to R771000, meaning they fell within the confines of his contract.
The travel review found that Majola “had not abused the system as regards travel”.
“The charges for the children travelling with him (which amounted to R28169) should have been debited to a recovery account and not expensed in the CSA income statement,” said Bester. “This was an error on the part of the accounting allocation of the expenses and will be recovered from Mr Majola.”
Nyoka, who is understood to have a strained relationship with Majola, said the commission’s recommendations needed to be accepted. “The Commission was able to listen to submissions from various parties and took into consideration all of them, and have come to a conclusion and we must respect their findings,” he said. - Saturday Star