Capability Statement

Our logo, an ancient oil lamp, was taken from a Greek historical account about the philosopher Diogenes "the Cynic", who lived in the 4th century BC and is reputed to have wandered the market place of Athens at night with an oil lamp, to search for "one honest person". We pride ourselves on strict adherence to ethics and professional principles in the way we deliver our professional services and deal with our business partners.

The quotation "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" is attributed to the astronomer Dr Carl Sagan (1934 - 1996), in relation to his work on studying the universe. The quotation is very apt in the context of the professional services we offer, because often situations are not in reality as they appear at first glance. Investigations and assignments require substantial flexibility as the real needs of our clients and project stakeholders become apparent. With specific relevance to fraud investigations, projects must frequently be approached with an open mind and involve the development of a number of hypotheses to determine what have been the likely background and history leading up to the current situation that needs to be addressed and resolved. The most important qualities of the investigator are to keep in mind independence and objectivity at all times; and to ensure that natural justice is served by being committed to the principle that anyone is innocent until proven guilty.

The principal of the company, Mr Ferdinand Balfoort, has a long and distinguished career in professional services and industry worldwide and personally delivers the services listed in the following service offering.

Our Managing Director, Halimaton S Mat Darus, has extensive experience in Human Resource consulting gained internationally. Details of our experience and projects undertaken globally are outlined on the world map.

In addition, based on our extensive experience and strong international networks we are able to draw upon local and international resources to assist us in the consistent delivery of high quality professional services.

Our professional service is highly adapted to multicultural environments asBalfoort Consulting is resourced with extensive language skills, both European and Asian languages, as well as extensive regional work experience.

Through our collective family histories and networks we have long and extensive historical connections with Asia. This is one of the main reasons why we have established our company in this region as it re-emerges to regain its prominent historical position as a centre of trade, economy and art.

As we have travelled around the world it seems like we have been following in our ancestors footsteps and nothing happens by accident. This is further described in the sections on specific family members. Recently we left Kuwait after a short assignment there, which initially attracted us a lot because of the proximity to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where one of Balfoort Consulting's senior consultants, Halimaton Balfoort, still has family in Jeddah and Mecca, due to a historic event which saw family ties being created between one branch of her family, originally from Hadramouth in Yemen, and another family branch, from Kedah, Malaysia, in the 19th century.

A similar experience occurred in Singapore when Ferdinand Balfoort, Principal Consultant of the company, happened to make a family connection to the Singapore Dutch Club (The Hollandsche Club", which was founded by his great uncle, Christiaan Koopman in 1907, and which celebrated its 100th birthday just shortly before we left for Kuwait on assignment in July 2008. See also http://www.hollandseclub.org.sg/heritage.html, which contains a description of the early years and photos of family heritage.