The State Capture period was deeply distressing and challenged South Africa. The impact and ensuing outrage have led to understandable calls for accountability from those responsible for wrongdoing. As we learnt alongside the country what had unfolded, we committed to act where any work was tainted by those complicit in the capture of SOEs. We remain deeply remorseful that our firm has in any way been associated with the dark era of State Capture. We publicly apologized and chose to take accountable action where we made mistakes.
We rejected Regiments and Trillian on probity grounds in March 2016. We also returned our full fees with interest for those projects. We did this because of our firm belief that it was the right thing to do. We co-operated with all authorities, including the NPA, and shared everything we found from our own extensive internal investigations. We had three Senior Partners testify before the Commission. We have globally upgraded our client and professional conduct policies and we substantially invested in our legal and compliance capabilities as we seek to set the standard for our profession. We have gone beyond our legal obligation as we have sought to make amends for our mistakes and have applied our learnings from these hard lessons across our firm.
After four years of exhaustive evidence, the Commission did not make any recommendations for further action against McKinsey and praised our "responsible corporate citizenship". Given no new information has been presented since the Commission, we believe pursuing McKinsey does not have merit and we will defend ourselves against any claims.
The Commission did reveal evidence that would suggest Mr. Sagar had been untruthful with us and also found that McKinsey had no knowledge of this. Where we found issues of concern regarding Mr. Sagar’s conduct, we reported them to the appropriate law enforcement authorities, including the NPA, for which he will have to account.
Our investigations and those of the Commission have reaffirmed our decision to retain our South African workforce. We are continuing to invest in the country, including our establishment of one of four knowledge and research hubs to support our clients across Africa and globally.