It's time to deal with Armscor's Fortune 500 fat cats
The Democratic Alliance (DA) believes that is time to deal with General "Mojo" Motau, Chairperson of Armscor, together with his colleges on the Armscor board who seem to believe that they can zoom around the world behaving like Fortune 500 fat cats.
Members of Armscor's board recently attend the DSEI defence exhibition in the United Kingdom between 13 September 2011 and 16 September 2011.
The delegation included "Mojo" Motau, Chairperson of Armscor, and Sipho Mkwanazi, Acting Chief Executive Officer of Armscor, together with a number of non-executive directors of the Armscor board.
While on the trip no expense seems to have been spared by Armscor including business class flights, luxury hotels and the use of a limousine service in the United Kingdom.
The Chairperson of Armscor, "Mojo" Motau needs to explain to parliament:
- Why it was necessary for the delegation to include non-executive directors including at least Dr RR Mgijima, Mr SA Msibi and Mr LW Mosiako?
- Was it really necessary for the delegation to book rooms in luxury hotels on the same night they were flying to the United Kingdom so as not to have to wait to check-in?
- Why were rooms booked and paid for at luxury hotels for six days when some members stayed for less than six days?
- Why was it necessary to use a luxury limousine service to transport members of the delegation?
- Why was it necessary for the delegation to be transported from their luxury hotels to the National Gallery in London?
The Armscor delegation made use of a luxury limousine service to provide transport in the United Kingdom. The limousine service cost the public nearly R43 000 which included:
- Transport from luxury hotels in to the National Gallery near Trafalgar Square in London; and
- Additional costs because the limousines were made to wait by the Armscor delegation for between 45 minutes and 20 minutes on three occasions.
The fact is that Armscor is a struggling state entity which received a bailout of R594,8 million from public funds in the 2010/2011 financial year. Armscor Acting Chief Executive Officer, Sipho Mkwanazi, himself claims in the 2010/2011 annual report that the entity is under "considerable financial pressure", and yet the Armscor board seem to think there is nothing wrong with zooming around the world behaving like Fortune 500 fat cats.
This is simply wrong.
There is likely to be a pattern of behaviour here and his is probably the tip of a wasteful expenditure iceberg at Armscor.
The DA will therefore write to Jerome Maake, Chairperson of the Joint Standing Committee on Defence, requesting him to schedule a special hearing into the wasteful expenditure on overseas trips by members of the Armscor board.
Statement issued by David Maynier MP, DA Shadow Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, December 14 2011
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