{"id":44960,"date":"2013-08-29T15:07:12","date_gmt":"2013-08-29T13:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=44960"},"modified":"2013-08-30T09:18:45","modified_gmt":"2013-08-30T07:18:45","slug":"mtn-sponsorships-questioned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/44960\/mtn-sponsorships-questioned\/","title":{"rendered":"MTN sponsorships questioned"},"content":{"rendered":"

MTN<\/a> has confirmed that it is reviewing its sponsporship strategy, after BusinessDay reported that an audit in its possession had flagged more than R19 million in irregular agreements.<\/p>\n

According to the report, a KPMG<\/a> audit of MTN highlighted a lack of process, policies and procedures with regards to\u00a0sponsorships at the mobile operator.<\/p>\n

It questioned sponsorship payments made through agencies – amounting to R62 million for the current year – despite the company having a sponsorship account for that purpose.<\/p>\n

Key beneficiaries, according to the report, were football clubs Bloemfontein Celtic and Golden Arrows; annual football tournament, MTN8; cycling team MTN, Qhubeka; and music group, Joyous Celebration.<\/p>\n

In a written statement, MTN confirmed that an audit was conducted “in line with normal business practices linked to governance”, but declined to comment on any additional details.<\/p>\n

“Accordingly, the company would like to reiterate that the decisions to sponsor or not are always informed by MTN\u2019s strategic direction,” it said.<\/p>\n

Mounting issues<\/h3>\n

MTN has come under the spotlight in recent months after the resignations and suspensions of a number of executives and managers.<\/p>\n

Eleanor Potter \u2013 GM for branded retail channel at MTN \u2013 has left the company, with MTN confirming that an investigation had been launched against Potter in 2012 over a R120 million tender irregularity.<\/p>\n

The operator also suspended its chief corporate services officer in South Africa, Robert Madzonga<\/a>, in August, because he authorised R12.3 million in questionable payments to a legal friend.<\/p>\n

Madzonga has since filed legal papers against the company over his suspension, arguing that he was suspended because of an internal grievance claim against senior manager, Lily Zondo.<\/p>\n

Zondo accused Madzonga of receiving some of the money paid to former communications minister Dina Pule<\/a>\u2019s boyfriend Phosa Mngqibisa<\/a>, as a management fee for the ICT indaba in 2012.<\/p>\n

According to BusinessDay, MTN is also facing a challenge by a black-owned project consulting firm whose R150 million site-build contract was prematurely terminated.<\/p>\n

More on MTN<\/h3>\n

Another day, another MTN scandal<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Another MTN executive suspended<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

MTN financial head surprise resignation amid controversy<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MTN’s issues are mounting as an audit into the company has turned up R19 million worth of irregular sponsorship agreements, BusinessDay reports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":44251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[26,28,6546],"class_list":["post-44960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-headline","tag-mtn","tag-sponsorship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44960"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45004,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44960\/revisions\/45004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}