The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) Receives Briefing from Road Accident Fund (RAF) on Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Special Leave and Ongoing SIU Investigation
The committee has a litany of concerns, which include but are not limited to:
That the board has failed properly to ensure that its senior officials are vetted for suitability, with the Chief Executive Officer informing the committee on 16 October 2024 that he had been vetted when this was not the case. Misleading Parliament is a serious breach of trust.
Failure to perform background checks on a senior official, also unvetted, even though he escaped disciplinary charges at his previous state employer. The committee has consistently expressed extreme displeasure at the practice of state employees escaping accountability for serious misconduct by securing employment elsewhere in the state.
Continuing for more than two years without ahead of legal services while pursuing litigation against the Auditor-General,and against the instructions of more than one Minister of Transport.
Failure to appoint a Chief Claims Officer for more than two years despite a serious backlog of claims.
Accumulating over R4bn in default judgements while failing to appoint either a head of legal services or Chief Claims Officer. The RAF has on numerous occasions been excoriated by the courts,including a case last week where the RAF attempted to overturn a R6m judgment by filing false statements with the court, and then proceeding not to argue its own application.
Just two law firms in a panel of over 40receiving over 83% of legal fees (R83m) paid during the most recent financial year. The two law firms also received the bulk of payments in the previous financial year.
The decision to place the CEO on special leave was taken by the board yesterday and announced to SCOPA by the Deputy Minister of Transport Mr Mkhuleko Hlongwa today in a meeting that was meant to discuss updates on the ongoing SIU investigations at RAF.
RAF board Chairperson, Ms Zanele Francois, told SCOPA that the reason for the CEO special leave was due to a disagreement over whether the RAF should agree to account to Parliament, the content of the presentation and potential conflict in relation to the ongoing SIU investigation.
The committee has instructed the board to provide comprehensive reasons in writing to the committee within a week.
SCOPA has resolved to recall RAF to return with detailed explanations regarding the special leave of the CEO, a breakdown of spending on cases with a list of law firms, attorney and council fees.
'The Road Accident Fund is funded by taxpayers. It is unacceptable that any official thereof refuses to account to Parliament in the manner we have experienced during the past week. It is also unacceptable that the institution can accumulate billions in default judgments due to its failure to manage litigation properly, leaving the institution vulnerable to expensive default judgments that accumulate interest taxpayers must pay,' said Songezo Zibi, the Chair of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Republic of South Africa: The Parliament.
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