Relations between the council of the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) and its CEO, Jackie Manche, deteriorated sharply in the months leading up to her suspension last month. Control of the regulator's purse strings played a big part in this conflict, a source says.
Manche is understood to have stepped on the toes of some councillors by being abrupt in her approach to them.
The tension between Manche and the council came to a head when she was suspended two weeks ago because of allegations that she had violated the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), the Icasa Act and Icasa policies and procedures.
The council declines to give reasons for her suspension. Chairman Paris Mashile was unavailable for comment but indicated he would address concerns later this week regarding structural problems in the organisation.
These developments follow the alleged disappearance of R110 000 from a safe at Icasa's head office in Sandton. "Council has no option but to suspend the CEO and institute an investigation," Icasa said in a statement.
Manche declines to speak about the precise reasons for her suspension but says financial oversight in the organisation has been problematic.
The tussle between the council and Manche arises from poorly worded legislation. It's not clear, she says, where the responsibility of councillors, who write regulations, ends and that of the administration, which takes care of day-to-day operations, begins.
The Icasa Act gives the council budgetary control and financial and administrative oversight; under the PFMA, the CEO is the person responsible for financial matters.
But unlike a company board, Icasa's councillors don't merely rubber-stamp a budget and wait for the next board meeting. The executive nature of the councillors' work means they are intimately involved in the daily running of the organisation.
It is therefore no surprise that Manche and the council have clashed over who manages the regulator's finances.
When she joined Icasa in July 2004, Manche says, she was surprised to discover how hands-on the councillors were. "When I got to Icasa, the council was writing cheques for R100," she says. Manche says she found this disturbing. It's not the amount of money the councillors were signing cheques for but the fact that they were doing it at all. "If a councillor signs a cheque, how can they maintain oversight?" she asks.
The recently tabled Icasa Amendment Bill is unlikely to ease these tensions. It does not address the conflict over financial control in the authority. The bill increases the role of the chairman of the council but stops short of making him an "accounting officer" - someone directly responsible under the PFMA for financial matters in a state institution.
Manche says the CEO of Icasa should also have a seat on the council because it is the CEO's job to implement the council's policies.
This is not the first time that concerns over the quality of financial controls at Icasa have been raised. In Icasa's 2005 annual report, the auditor-general (AG) identified a number of weaknesses. The AG found some cheques are signed by only one person, there were "numerous weaknesses" in the regulator's tender processes and there were inconsistencies in the lists of what fixed assets it owns.
Icasa also appears to be substantially overinsured. It has fixed assets of R15,1m but is insured for R172,6m.
