FirstRand Bank is set to finally announce today whether former transport minister, FirstRand nonexecutive director Mac Maharaj, will stay with the bank.

The investigation commissioned by FirstRand is over and an announcement on the report is expected today.

Amid the Maharaj controversy, FirstRand mounted a defence of its actions relating to the Maharaj affair.

Writing in Business Day today, FirstRand CEO Laurie Dippenaar, said the allegations surrounding Maharaj posed a "major test to the credibility and integrity of FirstRand and the banking sector as a whole".

Dippenaar said FirstRand took the difficult option by investigating the matter even though they relate to the time before Maharaj was appointed at the bank.

"We want our customers, our shareholders, our regulators and the public at large to have faith not just in FirstRand as in institution but in the entire banking sector," Dippenaar said.

He said the Maharaj issue also raised questions about the need for a "cooling off" period between the time when government officials leave office and they take employment in the private sector.

There are currently no rules governing a cooling off period, but the Maharaj case has pushed the debate to the fore.

Dippenaar also addressed concerns that FirstRand director Barry Adams sat on the National Roads Agency board at the time the N3 contract was awarded a deal in which FirstRand subsidiary Rand Merchant Bank was one of the major financiers.

He said that the bank had "absolute faith" that Adams' actions were beyond reproach because "the real issue is not that conflicts of interest may exist, but that it is the matter in which they are managed that is important".

Earlier this year, allegations surfaced that Maharaj received R500 000 from Durban businessman Schabir Shaik before he quit his position as transport minister.

Soon after the alleged payments, a consortium including Shaik's company landed a lucrative contract to upgrade the N3 toll road.

With acknowledgements to Rob Rose and the Business Day.