Cape Town - A four-month independent inquiry into allegations of corruption against Mac Maharaj, a FirstRand non-executive director and former transport minister, has been concluded.

However, a decision on the report, such as whether Maharaj should stay on the group's board, will have to wait a little longer.

The inquiry, which produced a report of over 200 pages that was handed to the bank's board on Wednesday, was conducted by attorneys Hofmeyr Herbstein & Gihwala and accountancy firm Deloitte & Touche.

The inquiry followed a Sunday Times article on February 16 in which it was alleged that Maharaj and his wife had accepted gifts and payments of more than R500 000 from a company controlled by former ANC fundraiser Schabir Shaik, brother to the government's chief arms procurer, Chippy Shaik. Maharaj was minister of transport at the time.

The alleged payments were not listed in the register of members' interests at parliament.

In February Maharaj took a leave of absence from FirstRand.

After two months the inquiry was extended, ostensibly while auditors Deloitte & Touche reviewed the report by Hofmeyr Herbstein & Gihwala.

In its announcement of May 18, FirstRand undertook to reach a final conclusion during July.

The final report, however, took longer than expected to complete, mainly because Schabir Shaik apparently only granted the inquiry team an interview last Friday.

The final report on the investigation was completed on Monday and was submitted to the Reserve Bank and Financial Services Board on Tuesday. It was discussed by the FirstRand board at a special meeting on Wednesday.

"The board is allowing Maharaj to make a submission responding to the final report. [He] has undertaken to submit a response within seven days, and the board expects to announce a decision shortly thereafter," FirstRand said in a statement yesterday.

A FirstRand spokesperson said that, while the actual report was not expected to be made public, "we won't duck it", and the board would react promptly to the recommendations.

The report contained information about organisations and people which was "not in the public domain" and the Scorpions were still investigating, the bank said

Since the corruption allegations were made against Maharaj, more questions have been raised about the amount of work FirstRand has received from the department of transport.

When Maharaj allegedly received the gifts in 1999, his department awarded contracts valued at R2.1 billion for the now complete N3 toll road.

FirstRand and Sumitomo Bank were co-funders of the project. Schabir Shaik's infrastructure business, Kobi-Infrastructure, was a participant in the contract.

Firstrand acted as debt arranger on the project. It underwrote some R800 million of funding, all of which it sold down.

There remains an outstanding project risk guarantee with the European Investment Bank estimated at about R305 million. There was no exposure to FirstRand on these arrangements, the spokesperson said.

Apart from Maharaj, FirstRand has other links with the transport department. These include Khehla Shubane, a non-executive director of FirstRand who is also non-executive chairman of the eight-member National Roads Agency board. FirstRand non-executive director Barry Adams has also held a seat on that board.

According to FirstRand's 2002 annual report, Ketso Gordhan, the former transport director-general, is a director at FirstRand's insurance arm, Momentum Group.

Achmed Vahed, a non-executive director of FirstRand Bank Holdings, is an in-law to the Shaiks.

GT Ferreira, the chairman of FirstRand, said he was confident no undue influence had been used to obtain toll road contracts and, in fact, the group had lost most of the toll road funding business it had bid for.

FirstRand, for example, lost bids to fund the N4 Maputo and N4 Bakwena toll road contracts.

FirstRand had a R126 million loan exposure to the winning Investec funding consortium on the N4 Maputo and another R200 million funding loan to Investec on the N4 Bakwena toll road.

These loans were, however, tiny in relation to the total contract value, the spokesperson said.

With acknowledgements to Edward West and the Business Report.