South Africa’s trade and industry department said on Tuesday it would launch an investigation into the alleged governance failures and financial irregularities at retailer Steinhoff, to determine any non-compliance with the Companies Act and Regulations.
“The Department of Trade and Industry and the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission(CIPC) have noted with great concern allegations of governance failures and financial irregularities at Steinhoff,” the department said.
In addition to the joint probe with the CIPC, the DTI said it would also ask the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (IRBA) to look into the role of auditors in the Steinhoff scandal.
The international retailer is grappling with the fallout from accounting irregularity which led to the resignation of CEO Markus Jooste last week and triggered a heavy sell-off that slashed billions of rand off the value of Steinhoff shares.
On Monday, parliament’s standing committee on public accounts said it planned to call executives for Steinhoff and the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) to account before legislators early next year.
Labour federation FEDUSA says the PIC, which manages South African government employee retirement funds, saw the market value of its 8.56 percent stake in Steinhoff tumble to just over R2 billion from an estimated R20 billion last week, hurting workers’ pensions. (via African News Agency)
