Interim Chief Procurement Officer appointed at troubled State Owned Enterprise

Ashney Chetty.jpgState-owned Broadband Infraco has appointed an interim Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) while the network infrastructure organisation realigns itself after an internal audit revealed serious flaws in its business practices, CEO Dr. Andrew Shaw told SmartProcurement.

Ashney Chetty has been acting as CPO since April 18 and will overhaul the SOE’s procurement practices, among which is ensuring Infraco complies with the regulations of the PFMA.

Chetty was previously involved in public procurement policy and governance at Transnet.

“Infraco is chuffed to have someone of Ashney’s caliber examining our procurement practices,” said Shaw.

Shaw was seconded as interim CEO for Infraco following the resignation of the previous CEO Dave Smith.

Shaw is supervising an ongoing forensic investigation into the affairs of the SOE after the internal audit report identified breaches in policies and a lack of systems and leadership in the SOE.

He is tasked with ensuring that Infraco complies with remedial actions proposed in the report and supervising and overseeing disciplinary actions against all staff mentioned in the report.

“We are looking forward,” Shaw told SmartProcurement. “The recent management troubles are a hiccup, one which may have been made worse by procurement practices.”

Some members of Infraco’s procurement department were suspended briefly following the audit report, and some have been reinstated.

“At this stage we are investigating allegations of procurement irregularities,” said Shaw.

Chetty will aid the organisation as it “gets back on track” to deliver broadband infrastructure, said Shaw.

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