MTN executive confesses to bribe

A former senior executive at MTN has admitted to resorting to bribery to acquire the Iranian mobile licence.

According to an article by City Press, Chris Kilowan incriminated himself and other top MTN executives in underhanded dealings to obtain a multibillion-dollar mobile licence in Iran. The article revealed that Kilowan testified that MTN’s former head of North African and Middle East operations, Irene Charnley, agreed to pay Yusuf Saloojee, who is SA’s former ambassador to Iran, for his help in getting the licence. Read the full article here.

What to do when you suspect bribery in your organisation
Amos Khumalo, an attorney at Amos Khumalo Inc, offers the following advice when approached for a bribe or when you become aware of bribery in your organisation:

1. Draw the matter to the attention of your senior management. The Corruption Act creates an obligation on a person in a position of authority to report to the police any instance of corruption that involves a value in excess of R100 000. Should a person in authority do nothing about it, such a person may be guilty of a crime.

2. If your company has a crime/corruption hotline, report the activity anonymously on that line. From an employer’s perspective, it is highly advisable that the line be managed or monitored by independent professionals, such as auditors, as this will encourage staff to report any corrupt act that they might observe.

3. You can also report the crime to your employer using the provisions of the Protected Disclosure Act, 26 of 2000 – also known as the ‘whistle blowers Act’. The advantage of using this legislation is that you may not be victimised by your employer for any disclosures made in terms of this legislation. Further, if you feel that you have been victimised as a result of any disclosure made under this Act, you may request your employer to transfer you to another department where you won’t be victimised and your employer will be obliged to do so.

4. You could also report any unlawful or corrupt activity to the office of the Public Protector or even the Auditor General, especially where you feel that alerting your employer or superior at work might result in the evidence being destroyed, or where the complaint relates to your superiors or the company itself. All that is required is that you must be acting in good faith and believe that the allegations you are reporting are substantially true. All the protections provided for in the Protected Disclosures Act would be available to you.

5. You many also report the matter to the South African Police Service (SAPS), who would then be obliged to investigate the matter further.