When President Jacob Zuma appointed Arthur Fraser South Africa's top spy last year, he ignored two official reports, both of which were a devastating indictment of Fraser's leadership of a wasteful, fraudulent and abortive agents' programme.
In the reports, the inspector-general of intelligence called on the minister of state security to conduct a forensic investigation "to establish the flow of monies" to determine possible culpability of agents and managers. The reports were both secret and kept under wraps until now.
In them, the then inspector-general of intelligence, Advocate Faith Radebe, probed the Principal Agent Network that Fraser, then the deputy director-general of operations at the State Security Agency, set up in the late 2000s.Kudjoe said in her affidavit, made in April 2014, that an audit of the PAN project "indicated a possibility of acts of theft, fraud, forgery and uttering of an amount exceeding R200-million".
Kudjoe resigned in August last year following a reportedly "tense" relationship with Mahlobo.
Zuma appointed Mahlobo state security minister in May 2014 and the reports were handed to him the next month.
He ignored the recommendations and appointed Fraser spy boss.
According to The President's Keepers, Fraser addressed SSA staff throughout South Africa and assured them that the inspector-general's investigation had exonerated him from any wrongdoing.
The SSA itself has been pushing a similar line. Last November, agency spokesman Brian Dube told the Sunday Times that the inspector-general "did not make any criminal findings" against Fraser.
Dube said the inspector-general recommended that the agency deal with "certain noncompliance of some operational directives".
He said the report had subsequently been tabled before the joint standing committee on intelligence in parliament and the matter was "considered closed".
Dube, confronted with the reports on Friday, said the SSAand Fraser "will not be commenting".He later said the issues raised "form part of the comprehensive matter which is being investigated criminally". He confirmed that he referred to the leaking and publication of classified documents.
Mahlobo, now energy minister, did not respond to questions - including whether he informed Zuma of the allegations against Fraser.
His spokeswoman, Nomvula Khalo, referred the Sunday Times to the SSA, while Dube referred the paper to the Department of Energy.
The Presidency did not respond to requests for comment.
IMPLOSION
The IGI is scathing about the "complete lack of action on the part of the SSA and by extension the minister in dealing with the so-called perpetrators in any decisive manner and to recoup what was possible to be recovered".
She said the investigation into the PAN commenced several years ago yet no action of note had been taken.
"There is no plausible explanation for the delay as good governance dictates that at the very least action could have been taken by SSA management on matters investigated and finalised by the various teams."
The inspector-general, who spoke of the "implosion" of the project in her report, heard evidence from the former chief financial officer of the SSA, Mkuseli Apleni (now home affairs director-general), on how the Covert Support Unit, under which PAN fell, drew advances of up to R10-million at a time.
"The CFO was not supposed to make inquiries as to what the money was spent on and how they were spent." Apleni told her financial controls were nonexistent and that he was "always told that he ought not to know about the covert environment".
SCOPA HOLDS BONGANI BONGO TO ACCOUNT
State Security Minister Bongani Bongo and his director-general Arthur Fraser will be called to explain to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts why the department has failed to vet supply-chain officials in the government.
On Tuesday, Scopa heard that Transnet and other state entities had failed to vet officials‚ in particular those involved in supply chains‚ despite a 2014 cabinet decision to this effect...