NEARLY a year after MTN set up a commission of inquiry to probe allegations of bribery levelled at it by a Turkish mobile operator, the findings have yet to be made public.
The inquiry was put together following the eruption of a lawsuit in which Turkcell sued MTN for R37-billion in a United States court.
MTN announced last February it had appointed controversial Judge Lord Leonard Hoffmann to lead the inquiry. Questions of conflict of interest emerged when it was discovered that Lord Hoffmann's daughter, Jenny Hoffmann, used to be employed as chief executive of MTN Banking for nine months between 2005 and 2006.
MTN Banking was a division that fell under the company's then commercial director Irene Charnley, who is a protagonist in the inquiry.
This means that Jenny Hoffmann reported directly to Charnley while she was at MTN.
Former MTN Iran head Chris Kilowan - in court papers - claimed that former MTN Group chief executive Phuthuma Nhleko and Charnley had authorised him to pay a bribe to secure an operating licence in Iran.
Though MTN did not address a set of questions Sowetan sent on Friday, the company revealed it planned to have the report ready between January and March.
"We expect the report to be tabled before the MTN Group board during the first quarter of 2013," MTN spokesman Paul Norman said.
In an interview that has never been published, Jenny Hoffmann in October denied there was a conflict of interest and described Sowetan's questions as bizarre.
"What bizarre questions. I am not a friend of Irene Charnley and have never been one. I last communicated with Irene when I was working at MTN Mobile Money - a subsidiary of MTN South Africa.
"I met Charnley when I took the job at MTN Mobile Money and I cannot see what the interests are in conflict. I derive no benefits from MTN or MTN Mobile Money or from Mrs Charnley. Good try," she said.
- sibanyonim@sowetan.co.za
MTN stalls on bribery probe
NEARLY a year after MTN set up a commission of inquiry to probe allegations of bribery levelled at it by a Turkish mobile operator, the findings have yet to be made public.
The inquiry was put together following the eruption of a lawsuit in which Turkcell sued MTN for R37-billion in a United States court.
MTN announced last February it had appointed controversial Judge Lord Leonard Hoffmann to lead the inquiry. Questions of conflict of interest emerged when it was discovered that Lord Hoffmann's daughter, Jenny Hoffmann, used to be employed as chief executive of MTN Banking for nine months between 2005 and 2006.
MTN Banking was a division that fell under the company's then commercial director Irene Charnley, who is a protagonist in the inquiry.
This means that Jenny Hoffmann reported directly to Charnley while she was at MTN.
Former MTN Iran head Chris Kilowan - in court papers - claimed that former MTN Group chief executive Phuthuma Nhleko and Charnley had authorised him to pay a bribe to secure an operating licence in Iran.
Though MTN did not address a set of questions Sowetan sent on Friday, the company revealed it planned to have the report ready between January and March.
"We expect the report to be tabled before the MTN Group board during the first quarter of 2013," MTN spokesman Paul Norman said.
In an interview that has never been published, Jenny Hoffmann in October denied there was a conflict of interest and described Sowetan's questions as bizarre.
"What bizarre questions. I am not a friend of Irene Charnley and have never been one. I last communicated with Irene when I was working at MTN Mobile Money - a subsidiary of MTN South Africa.
"I met Charnley when I took the job at MTN Mobile Money and I cannot see what the interests are in conflict. I derive no benefits from MTN or MTN Mobile Money or from Mrs Charnley. Good try," she said.
- sibanyonim@sowetan.co.za
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