vodacom exec up for perjury
24 July 2008
A female Vodacom executive is facing criminal charges in connection with providing false information to the Competition Commission. The commission yesterday filed charges of perjury against the executive, who cannot be named until she has appeared in court, with the Sunnyside South African Police Service.
This afternoon (Thursday), the commission released a statement saying it believes the executive “committed a criminal offence in that she intentionally provided false information to mislead the Commission, in contravention of the Competition Act”. The Act determines that any information given to the Competition Commission has to be true, otherwise it is considered to be perjury.
The penalty for these offences is a maximum prison sentence of six months, or a fine of R2000, or both.
The commission explains that it received notification on 20 December of a large merger between Vodacom subsidiary Vodacom Service Provider Company (VSPC), and Global Telematics SA and Glocell Service Provider Company. The authority recommended that the merger go ahead, even though Vodacom failed to provide it with all board minutes relating to the proposed deal. However, upon appearing in front of the Competition Tribunal, the relevant documents were produced. According to the commission, it “subsequently investigated the matter and found that the rationale for the transaction was to eliminate Glocell, because it was providing discounts to customers in competition with Vodacom and other Vodacom service providers”.
“It is clear from Vodacom's documents that the transaction was intended to, in fact, take out a company that was providing competition and threatening its margins. “Accordingly, the commission believes that grounds existed for referring this matter to the criminal prosecution authorities for charges.”
Vodacom could not immediately comment on the matter.