{"id":14566,"date":"2022-10-04T10:35:50","date_gmt":"2022-10-04T10:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/did-nbfira-sleep-on-job"},"modified":"2022-10-04T11:26:27","modified_gmt":"2022-10-04T11:26:27","slug":"did-nbfira-sleep-on-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/did-nbfira-sleep-on-job","title":{"rendered":"Did NBFIRA sleep on job?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. <\/strong><\/span>The Non-Banking Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority (NBFIRA) could have played a major role in the collapse of Bluthorn Fund Managers (BFM) by letting its guard down.<\/b><\/p>\n

Lawyers representing creditors at a hearing before High Court Master Chipo Gaopatwe sought to establish if the regulator should not take responsibility by allowing BFM to violate some regulations under its watch.<\/p>\n

During interrogations, Bluthorn auditors at BOD Certified Auditors suggested that NBFIRA should take the blame for the collapse of BFM as some violations of corporate governance and standards happened under the watch of the regulator.<\/p>\n

NBFIRA was also hauled over the coals for appointing one of the auditors of BMF at BOD as a provisional liquidator in what was a clear conflict of interest.<\/p>\n

Lawyers representing creditors grilled NBFIRA\u2019s director for the capital market sector, Juliana White on the role played by the regulator in the collapse of Bluthorn. Representing BOSETU, attorney Kabo Motswagole grilled White on why NBFIRA continued to \u201clicense the company post 2017 when it was apparent that the company was loss making by the period that ended in March 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I said in my submission was that during the first day of operation of a company, post licensing, we expect at times that the company should not do well,\u201d said White in her response.<\/p>\n

She added that; \u201cIt applied for a license in capital markets department or rather with NBFIRA to operate a Collective Investments Undertaking, being an investment fund operating an umbrella fund with variable capital.\u201d<\/p>\n

Motswagole also took White to task over \u201chow somebody who breaches a Statutory provision should be engaged you must take action immediately, because they are the ones who were very clear that they gave out loans, why weren\u2019t they subjected to enforcement and compliance?\u201d<\/p>\n

White said at that stage they we were not aware that those were the loans using investor funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that point we were not aware,\u201d said White. For her part, Ghanzi District Council\u2019s attorney, Onalenna Otlaadisa also fired a broadside at White over Van Der Vyver\u2019s admission \u201cthat their audit was not complete, was insufficient and did not raise the issues that it should have raised.\u201d<\/p>\n

She informed White that Van Der Vyver \u201ckept on saying that they were dependent on NBFIRA because NBFIRA as the regulator was indulging the BFM directors and was in constant engagement with BFM, what would your comment be on that?\u201d<\/p>\n

White denied as untrue that they treated BFM with kids\u2019 gloves.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say that firstly, we did not indulge or overindulge BFM at all, I think that is a misstatement. We were operating the monitoring and supervision of a BFM using our own internal processes and procedures,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Van Der Vyver, a partner at BDO Certified Auditors, defended his company against allegations that they didn\u2019t raise alarm as they were obligated to do.<\/p>\n

Attorney Sipho Ziga asked Van Der Vyver; \u201c\u2026 it transpires that you don\u2019t have sufficient information to conduct an audit. What did you do about it? What is your obligation as an auditor in that case? Don\u2019t you have an obligation to notify the regulator?\u201d<\/p>\n

Replying Van Der Vyver argued that they were \u201cactively engaged with the Regulator throughout the whole BFM process, but they were more focused on BFM.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t recall a stage when the regulator was chasing these accounts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ziga asked him; \u201cSo basically, when you couldn\u2019t do the audit, you can confirm that you did not report this to anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, Van Der Vyver said; \u201cWell NBFIRA were aware, because we were engaged with them.\u201d Ziga sought to establish if the fact that a \u201cregulated entity can\u2019t produce enough records for BOD to audit\u2026isn\u2019t it that a material irregularity that deserves to be reported?\u2026why didn\u2019t you report it then in terms of section 204 of the Companies Act because this requires a formal report.\u201d Van Der Vyver continued to point his fingers at the regulator.<\/p>\n

\u201cNBFIRA was aware that this audit,\u201d he said. Ziga then sought to know from Van Der Vyverwhy if he is familiar with the act which states that Bluthorn was not allowed to give loans to other entities?<\/p>\n

Van Der Vyver said \u201cBut this is just how the company was structured, from inception.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ziga asked if that was not illegal in terms of the legislation. Van Der Vyver said; \u201cBut NBFIRA didn\u2019t say that they weren\u2019t happy with it.\u201d Van Der Vyver said they held a meeting with the regulator wherein they showed them how the company was operating, showed them what was going on which he said was done in a transparent manner. \u201cThey even requested us to give them information. Which we did,\u201d said Van Der Vyver. Ziga also grilled Van Der Vyver on whether he did not have any concerns about whether or not his<\/p>\n

partner Chris Bray had a conflict when he was later appointed provisional liquidator of BMF.<\/p>\n

Van Der Vyver said Bray was approached by NBFIRA. \u201cYes, he was approached by NBFIRA. But were you not concerned about an ethical conflict that as a partner, he is now the liquidator of the company that you audited?\u201d Ziga asked.<\/p>\n

Van Der Vyver insisted that his colleague was approached by NBFIRA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey asked him to be provisional liquidator, he was appointed as such through the courts. I think he was only told on the 26th of Feb. 2021 that he was officially appointed in the court,\u201d said Van Der Vyver.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Botswana<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. The Non-Banking Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority (NBFIRA) could have played a major role in the collapse of Bluthorn Fund Managers (BFM) by letting its guard down. Lawyers representing creditors at a hearing before High Court Master Chipo Gaopatwe sought to establish if the regulator should not take responsibility by allowing BFM to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":14565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,7,8,16],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-14566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-botswana","tag-botswana"],"yoast_head":"\nDid NBFIRA sleep on job? - Botswana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Non-Banking Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority (NBFIRA) could have played a major role in the collapse o ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/did-nbfira-sleep-on-job\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Did NBFIRA sleep on job?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Non-Banking Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority (NBFIRA) could have played a major role in the collapse o ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/did-nbfira-sleep-on-job\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Botswana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-10-04T10:35:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-10-04T11:26:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/10\/postQueueImg_5.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"464\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/did-nbfira-sleep-on-job#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/did-nbfira-sleep-on-job\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Did NBFIRA sleep on job?\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-10-04T10:35:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-10-04T11:26:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/did-nbfira-sleep-on-job\"},\"wordCount\":938,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/did-nbfira-sleep-on-job#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/10\/postQueueImg_5.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Botswana\",\"Botswana\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\",\"head lines\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/did-nbfira-sleep-on-job#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/did-nbfira-sleep-on-job\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/did-nbfira-sleep-on-job\",\"name\":\"Did NBFIRA sleep on job? 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