Fidentia tarnished Teta's image

"The Fidentia scandal has been damaging‚ but we have had to rise above that. We have received a lot of negative publicity‚ with some stakeholders threatening to take us to the media‚" Anno-Frempong said. She did not name the "stakeholders".

The training authority appeared before Parliament's Higher Education and Training portfolio committee to brief MPs on how more than R200m invested through Fidentia‚ the now liquidated investment scheme‚ would be recovered.

However‚ MPs were not pleased with the presentation and told the Anno-Frempong to go back and prepare a "comprehensive" report on the issue.

This is the first time that the Fidentia saga - widely regarded as one of the biggest corporate scandals in SA - has been brought to MPs since the matter first broke almost six years ago.

Financial Services Board

Next week the Financial Services Board is scheduled to appear before Parliament's standing committee on Finance to discuss the recent court case involving former Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown.

Last month‚ the Western Cape high court sentenced Brown to a fine of R150‚000 after he was found guilty on two counts of fraud relating to how he handled investments for Teta and the Mantadia Asset Trust Company between 2002 and 2006.

The state originally laid 192 charges against him. He was also sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment for each count‚ which was suspended for four years on condition he not be convicted for fraud again.

The sentence was seen by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and other groups including the Congress of South African Trade Unions as "too lenient". The NPA this week unsuccessfully tried to apply for leave to appeal the sentence and has now turned to the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Officials from Teta told Parliament that Fidentia had repaid R15m after the authority had requested a tranche repayment. The balance of R185‚3m remained invested with Fidentia. No further repayments were made by Fidentia despite repeated requests by Teta.

Claims to curators

The training authority had since submitted a claim to curators for the R185‚3m which was approved. A payment of R33‚37m from the first distribution account had been made by the curators and the authority expected further payments to be made in due course from the second distribution.

Officials told MPs that the curators would be filing further reports with the court and the Financial Services Board and the next report was due next month. The authority told MPs that although it had suffered a loss‚ it had continued to carry out its mandate.

The R33‚37m recovered from curators would be go towards training as the Teta board had approved the use of the money for an international leadership development programme.

Committee chairman Ishmael Malale said a comprehensive a report explaining all the activities‚ decisions‚ people involved‚ as well as the entity's plans and progress report in its quest to recoup the funds‚ would help the committee understand the issue better.

"There are several issues that need to be clarified by the entity in order for us to be informed on this matter because we only heard about it through the media since the scandal broke‚" he said.

"The comprehensive report must encapsulate current investments by Teta with any investment institutions in order to ensure non-recurrence of unsecured endowments," he said.

Malale said the portfolio committee wanted answers on how millions of rands came to be invested in Fidentia and what measures were in place to recover those funds.

Alan Jeftha‚ the training authority's attorney told MPs that a comprehensive report would be submitted to Parliament in due course. The report would‚ among other things‚ outline what lessons‚ especially in terms of investment‚ Teta had learned from the Fidentia debacle.