EDITORIAL: Shifty Bain falls short of clarity
Its shifting stance will make South Africans question why they should take Bain & Co’s ‘independent’ investigation seriously
What is one to make of Bain & Co’s attempts to explain away its activities with the SA Revenue Service (Sars)? It’s been a slow-moving scandal that the company at some point looked to be in control of. The decision to voluntarily appear at the Nugent commission of inquiry and explain its work at Sars seemed to be a masterstroke, and reinforced the idea that it would at least avoid being another McKinsey, which found itself at the centre of corruption and mismanagement at Eskom. With its reputation in tatters, McKinsey was forced into an embarrassing mea culpa, eventually paying back almost R1bn. But Bain’s strategy began to unravel very quickly during managing partner Vittorio Massone’s appearance at the commission, where he endured a torrid time, failing to answer some pretty basic questions. Then reports emerged that far from being an unwitting, perhaps naïve, cog in the capture project at Sars, Massone may have played a much more central and sinister role.
The consultancy s...
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