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Rhinos, tenders & transformation: a chat with SANParks CFO Rajesh Mahabeer
Posted by CFO South Africa on March 15, 2016 at 8:00View Article
"SANParks is a large, multifaceted organisation with several focal areas, including tourism, conservation and the management of estates. This mix creates a different level of complexity. I would say SANParks is far more complex than other environment where I've worked," says Rajesh Mahabeer, CFO of South African National Parks (SANParks).
Rajesh is responsible for the organisation's entire financial portfolio, supply chain management and fundraising, and oversees a department comprised of 170 people nationally. "It's very gratifying to see such large estates managed to such word-class standards on very lean budgets."
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You've been CFO of SANParks for just over one year. How has your time here been? What have you achieved in this time?
"Fascinating from day one. There have also been many challenges. SANParks is a large, multifaceted organisation with several focal areas, including tourism, conservation and the management of estates, which is collectively the national park system. This mix creates a different level of complexity. I've been exposed to many areas of the business I've not been formally involved in previously, such as the fight against rhino poaching, or working to grow tourism incomes with colleagues. The role has been quite different and varied. But it's very stimulating and I remain completely engaged."
"I joined on 1 February 2015, just before the financial yearend. We were able to streamline what we had to do in preparation for the financial year-end audit considering the various administrative challenges, which were adequately dealt with by the team. We got an unqualified audit report and the AG reported that our financial statements were free of material misstatements. I also serve on the executive committee and the audit and risk committee, and support the board in its work. To date, we've made significant inroads in corporate governance and strengthening the organisation's financial administration and management. All these things together have positioned SANParks into a space where it can effectively go out there and promote its brands in terms of trying to secure donations for the many things that it needs to do. We've just gone through a process of developing a fundraising strategy, so we've been positioning the organisation to capitalise on its strong global brand and support this by presenting a strong corporate governance picture that will give donors confidence."
As SANParks CFO, you are responsible for driving the organisation's financial strategy. Could you tell us what this strategy entails?
"Our strategy begins with our revenue streams, which are broken down into two segments: tourism income and conservation fees generation. We also receive a third income stream via the government as the land is government ground, and a fourth from donations. We currently cover about 80% of our operating costs based on our own revenued income – a high percentage for a public entity. The plan is to continue growing our revenue streams, especially where tourism incomes are concerned, to get to the point where we can cover 100% of our operating costs whilst government will continue fund the maintenance and development of infrastructure . Our responsibility is to ensure we get financial efficiency and product effectiveness in the execution of the infrastructure work we undertake in the national park system."
"SANParks is broken down into two: the Kruger National Park, and then all 21 other parks, which comprise the parks division. We have a strong finance team. The finance and SCM functions at SANParks comprise a total of 170 people nationally."
What would you still like to achieve, perhaps over the coming year?
"There are significant projects underway currently. For example, we are going through an organisational design process within the finance business unit and we are currently embarked on some significant tenders which I'm driving as CFO. We are also engaged in significant fundraising activities intended to bring us appropriate levels of donor funding. Recently, the Howard G Buffet Foundation made a generous donation of R255 million to SANParks, which enabled us to bring technological interventions in the fight against rhino poaching. We are also reconceptualising our strategy and approach in the way we structure ourselves in responding to specific challenges within SANParks."
"In terms of our business model, SANParks' strategy remains very much what it is – tourism, conservation and caring for the animals. But we need to look at our parks from a national perspective and set about growing them by acquiring adjacent pieces of land and increasing their size. We've also got a strong transformation agenda. We drive this through our SCM practices, our employment equity agenda, our CSI commitments and growing black visitors to our parks. That's all evident in our five-year plan, as is the targeting of 50% of women in management – also a national government imperative – and having 2% of our workforce being physically challenged."