Publication	Sunday Times
Date	2007-05-27
Reporter	Jocelyn Maker, Megan Power
Web Link	www.sundaytimes.co.za

Shaik packs for Australia
Exposé of his bogus doctorate was ‘last straw’
His professor pals to face serious misconduct charges

Chippy Shaik is on the run.

He is moving to Australia with his wife and children.

The 46-year-old has finally admitted what the Sunday Times reported three months ago — that he planned to flee the country he says he has so “loyally served” *1.

His admission to The Weekender newspaper comes a week after a Sunday Times exposé revealed that two professors helped him plagiarise his 2003 PhD in mechanical engineering from the then University of Natal.

Shaik, the government’s former head of arms procurement, left the Department of Defence under a cloud amid widespread allegations about his role in the multibillion-rand arms deal.

Now, as pressure mounts for South Africa to co-operate with German investigators into allegations of a R21-million arms deal bribe being paid to him, Shaik says it was the report about his thesis that was the final straw *2.

This week his brother Yunis struggled to defend Shaik ’s reputation.

Yesterday, when Yunis was asked if the newspaper could put questions to Shaik about his whereabouts and his thesis, he slammed down the phone after saying his brother had been “maligned” enough.

Shaik has denied that his thesis was plagiarised.

Today the Sunday Times can reveal that a new scandal has erupted around two University of KwaZulu- Natal (UKZN) professors, Viktor Verijenko and Sarp Adali, who helped Shaik concoct his thesis.

The two academics will tomorrow be charged with serious misconduct involving a R2.4-million government research contract the university knew nothing about. The charges will include the professors’ roles in the awarding of Shaik’s PhD.

On Monday this week, a day after the thesis saga broke, Verijenko suddenly resigned by e-mail from Australia.

He and his family left South Africa on approved sabbatical leave in March this year, within weeks of his friend Shaik — although his leave application lists his sabbatical as being spent in the US.

Verijenko stands accused of claiming, without authority, that he and his CC, Veryitech, were agents of the university to secure a major contract with Spoornet in June 2003. Adali approved the contract, again without authorisation.

The university probe was sparked during a routine audit check last year, and Verijenko was aware of it before leaving the country.

The Scorpions, meanwhile, visited the university in November and are investigating criminal charges.

The Sunday times has established that:

• Verijenko signed the contract without authority, binding the university to an agreement it had no knowledge of;

• Project equipment was bought without following the university’s procurement policies;

• Veryitech was paid R2.4-million by Spoornet during the project, of which only R960 000 has been paid to the university. In January, after Verijenko got wind of the Scorpion’s involvement, he paid the amount to the university; and

• Adali approved the contract without authority


Verijenko dipped into research funds strictly allocated to other projects, including some headed by his wife and co-staffer Belinda;

At a meeting with university officials on February 23 this year — which he refused to have tape-recorded — Verijenko admitted he should not have signed the contract and that he had intended to reimburse everyone concerned at the end of the project.

He said he’d been put under duress by the Spoornet representative who had wanted to get the project off the ground. But John Dludu, spokesman for Spoornet’s parent company, Transnet, said: “We had concerns relating to the contract we had with the university. We brought these to their attention and simultaneously commissioned our own investigation. ”

A university-appointed prosecutor, attorney Mike Maeso, confirmed the charge sheets would be served on the academics tomorrow.

“Verijenko allowed his interests to conflict with those of the university, to the institution’s prejudice,” Maeso said yesterday.

He added that Verijenko’s resignation this week, which he’d dated with immediate effect, was “defective”.

“His resignation is not good in law because his notice period is three months minimum in terms of his conditions of employment, and we believe we can hold him to that and proceed against him on these charges,” said Maeso.

Verijenko would be “invited” back to participate in his disciplinary hearing, failing which the process would take place in his absence, he said.

“The charges are very serious, the consequences of which may result in dismissal and allow the university to attach pension funds,” said Maeso.

The Sunday Times has also learnt that Verijenko, while at the university, entered into a separate R1.7-million contract with Armscor in November 1999 under the name of another CC, VE Verijenko Consultants.

Although it is listed as one of Armscor’s approved suppliers, there are no records of the CC with the Registrar of Companies.

The contract, which provided for the development of new technology for “smart bolts” for use in the safety of critical structures in aircraft, was spread over three years.

Verijenko, however, withdrew from the project after just eight months, citing “differences in approach”. He was paid R550 000.

Armscor’s Bertus Celliers expressed surprised (sic) this week when told the CC was not registered.

He said the contract was terminated by “mutual agreement” in July 2000 because “Verijenko didn’t agree with the way Armscor was managing the project”.

UKZN was not aware of the Armscor contract but said it would investigate if there were any links to the institution.

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*1       "It was Samuel Johnson who said 'patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel', in this case it looks like it'll be Australia".


*2      The pricking of a false ego.