A lack of sound financial practice and process management are some of the reasons for North West Cricket’s financial situation. This refers to the allocation of contractors for the 2017 stadium upgrade at Senwes Park.
CSA (Cricket South Africa) confirmed in December last year that North West Cricket is currently being investigated for fraud and that the NWC board is now under administration.
The former NWC president, Archie Pretorius will act as the administrator to take over the administrative, governance and financial affairs of North West Cricket until order has been restored.

An internal investigation into financial irregularities
The financial woes came to light after an internal investigation into alleged irregularities at the union in 2018. The former NWC CEO, Vincent Prior and a labour lawyer spearheaded the probe. Many issues in the report remain a cause for concern.
According to the final labour lawyer report, the president of NWC, Dr Oupa Nkagisang asked Prior to investigate in May last year. The former CEO had found and reported several inflated invoices while working through the previous year’s bank statements. He was trying to understand why he had inherited such a poor financial position at NWC.
The financial issues started in 2017 when Cricket South Africa (CSA) allocated NWC a R7.1 million loan and an additional R3 million grant to upgrade the stadium for the T20 Global League and the international test series between South Africa and Bangladesh.
A former North West Cricket employee, Leondra Smith, was appointed as the project manager for the upgrades. According to the report, Smith was instructed to source BBBEE (Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment) contractors to do the job in line with CSA requests. According to Ngakisang, however, as per the CSA mandate, the contractors did not have to be BBBEE contractors, they only had to be BBBEE compliant.

Time constraints and a lack of financial direction
Time constraints and a lack of experience in dealing with such large-scale upgrades are alleged to have caused some hastily made decisions when NWC only had an acting CEO, Mr Jaco Ebersohn. They were often made without the full Board of Directors’ approval. The absence of a chief financial officer who could manage CSA’s new accounting software was also one of the pitfalls. Among others, this period saw the signing and approval of overinflated invoices from two companies to repair and paint the pavilion and install seats in the grandstand at Senwes Park.

One supplier, Nepaka Construction and Projects quoted a sum of R 1 487 001 – a million rand more than two other suppliers’ invoices. The original budget for pavilion painting during this period amounted to R350 000 – a far cry from the quotation that was approved.
Rodlin Designs was appointed to supply the seats in the main grandstand at the cost of R 1 556 640, with each unit costing R1297. An alternative company also quoted and proved to be a cheaper option that would have cost NWC only R 279 600. The Herald tried to contact the suppliers by phone and email but could not get a response at the time of going to print.
According to the labour lawyer report, the correct procurement processes were not adhered to and this placed the union in a financial quagmire. The report states that Nkagisang had approved both quotations.

Nkagisang defended himself, saying he had signed the quotations for the stadium upgrades because he trusted that the correct procurement procedures had been followed. According to him, he decided to sign them off so the scheduled upgrades would be completed as per the CSA schedule.
‘I have investigated this matter thoroughly. For instance, there were many overinflated invoices and double payments that I never cleared or were even aware of during the past 18 months. Nkagisang added that the current CSA audit will bring the truth to light and that the irregularities will be dealt with.

North West Cricket facing tough times after stadium upgrade controversy