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| Letsoalo denied these claims and said he was being targeted by those who sought to undermine the work he was doing at Prasa. |
A South African
government official who granted himself a 350% pay rise has been sacked.
BBC News report continues:Collins Letsoalo was supposed to be "Mr Fix-it" - brought in to clean up corruption and waste at South Africa’s troubled railways authority.
But
soon after his arrival last year at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA),
Mr Letsoalo allegedly sought a pay rise of 350% - taking his annual salary to
some US$450,000 (£360,000).
When
a newspaper published details of what it said was an unauthorized salary
increase, Mr Letsoala insisted he had done nothing wrong.
But
the rail agency board has now decided otherwise – and voted unanimously to
remove him from the job.
To
some, this is a scandal about the culture of entitlement and corruption
pervading the upper levels of the South African state.
And
a rare example of someone actually being found out, and punished.
But
Mr Letsoalo is right to point out that executives running the country’s other
struggling state-owned enterprises all earn similarly huge salaries.
With
South Africa’s economy stalled, anger over inequality growing, and the
government borrowing heavily to pay its army of civil servants – there may be
other lessons to learn from Mr Letsoalo’s fall.
'It's A Smear
Campaign': Acting PRASA CEO On 350% Salary Increase Allegations
Acting Passenger Rail
Agency of South Africa CEO Collins Letsoalo‚ has dismissed claims that he
increased his own salary by 350%‚ saying they were part of a smear campaign.
Sowetan
LIVE reports that Letsoalo
addressed members of the media on Monday after the Sunday Times reported that
he insisted he be paid the same as former PRASA head Lucky Montana.
Letsoalo‚
who remains an employee of the transport department‚ was seconded to PRASA by
Transport Minister Dipuo Peters last year to turn the agency around‚ after
Montana stepped down amid allegations of corruption and maladministration.
In
her secondment letter Peters said Letsoalo’s pay package of R1.3 million would
not change. He would‚ however‚ receive a 12% “acting allowance“‚ the Sunday
Times reported.
Letsoalo
on Monday said that his salary would return to R1.3 million when he returns to
the department‚ but that the R5.9 million he was earning at PRASA had been
approved by the agency’s board.
Letsoalo
read out a letter from the board‚ stating its pleasure at his acceptance of the
offer to act as group CEO. The letter also states that Letsoalo will be paid
the annualized salary rate applicable to the position.
Letsoalo
sought clarity from the group’s general manager of remuneration and benefits
Bongani Nkomo‚ who wrote back with confirmation that the remuneration package
for group CEO is about R5.9 million.
The
Sunday Times also reported that Letsoalo demanded a chauffeur-driven car and a
company cellphone with unlimited calls and that he fired acting group executive
for human capital Bhekani Khumalo in an alleged dispute over the salary
increase.
Letsoalo
denied these claims and said he was being targeted by those who sought to
undermine the work he was doing at PRASA.
“I
will fight this corruption in PRASA. I will fight this nepotism in PRASA. We
have hard-working men and women in PRASA. I want to say to them more is coming‚
but we must never deviate from the cause.
“People
must seek to report what is truthful and not raise issues that really don’t
exist‚” he said.
Letsoalo
said he was a “proud‚ incorruptible public servant” and that he was determined
to leave PRASA in a better condition than he found it in.
“There’s
a lot of people‚ like myself‚ that get attacked for trying to do the right
things.”
Letsoalo
said he would like the Sunday Times to print a front page apology for not
reporting on all of the facts related to the story.
“I am on a Facebook or Twitter person but I heard I was trending [after the story’s publication]. I don’t know if people know I was trending based on lies‚” he said.
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