Just say no!
March 25th, 2009
Can you believe what the SABC Chief Financial Officer, Robin Nicholson, said in Business Day? He tried to make out that he was just a bookkeeper and should not be held responsible for their over-spending.
“My job is to make sure the systems and controls are in place. The fact that they’re overspending their budgets, I can only tell you,” Nicholson told Jocelyn Newmarch of Business Day.
“Finance is a consequence of strategy and actions. Don’t hold me to account for what others have done, unless I could have influenced it,” he said.
Hold on a minute: if, as you say, your job is make sure the controls are in place, why has spending gone out of control? And didn’t you know until it was too late? Don’t tell me that a CFO is unable to influence spending. Try saying ‘No!’, Mr Nicholson. Like this: ‘Sorry, we can’t afford a bureau in Jamaica’ or ‘Sorry, you have used up your budget for expensive overseas trips.’
His remarks sum up the problem at the SABC: nobody will take responsibility and everyone will blame someone else. When your CFO is saying that he just keeps the numbers and he has no responsibility for what they tell him, then an organisation is in deep trouble.
Read it here: http://allafrica.com/stories/200903200094.html
Entry Filed under: Anton Harber, Radio, TV
2 Comments Add your own
1. amandzing | April 7th, 2009 at 10:01 am
how is this surprising? especially when seen in the light of the npa decision on zuma…
2. Thought Leader » Mi&hellip | June 9th, 2009 at 11:24 am
[...] And, according to Beeld, “Millions of rands have been set aside by the SABC for the upgrading of its building’s foyer and the acquisition of luxury cars, while workers don’t even have proper broadcasting equipment. A senior TV news employee, who’s been with the SABC for years, said employees are particularly unhappy that ‘huge amounts of money are still being spent on luxury cars and millions on upgrading the foyer.’ Meanwhile essential broadcasting equipment is ‘in a poor condition and deteriorating quickly’.” Nicholson, it seems, feels that he should bear none of the blame for the SABC’s current financial plight, but this Pontius Pilate approach has not impressed Wits journalism professor and one of the founders of the Mail & Guardian, Anton Harber. [...]
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