Latest news with #SCOPA
Zawya
28-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
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 Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) has instructed the minster to take urgent steps to restore the effectiveness of governance systems at the Road Accident Fund (RAF). The RAF Chief Executive Officer, Mr Collins Letsoalo, was placed on special leave on Monday, 26 May 2025. 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.
Eyewitness News
23-05-2025
- Business
- Eyewitness News
SCOPA chair Zibi says time to get budget process back on track
CAPE TOWN - Chairperson of Parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) Songezo Zibi says it's time to get the budget process back on track after a value-added tax (VAT) debacle that has derailed two previous attempts to table a budget for the country. In his latest iteration of the budget, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has opted to lift a three-year freeze on increasing the fuel levy instead of raising the standard tax rate. Zibi said the budget debate has become about taxation rather than the realities of spending cuts to key departments such as health and education to fund the R2.5 trillion budget. "The debate around the budget is supposed to be about the order of those priorities - and whether these allocations are sufficient, or to be spent in an efficient manner. We never got the chance to have that discussion. I hope that now there will be an opportunity to do so."
Eyewitness News
23-05-2025
- Business
- Eyewitness News
Parliament's finance committees set to interrogate Godongwana's budget
CAPE TOWN - Parliament's finance committees is on Friday set to begin interrogating the latest budget tabled by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana on Wednesday. The chairpersons of these committees said at a briefing on Thursday that the contestation over a proposed value-added tax (VAT) hike over the last three months has overshadowed what should have been a discussion about government's spending priorities. Chairperson of the standing committee on finance, Joe Maswanganyi, said it was every citizen's duty to pay taxes, and the impression can't be created that they can never be adjusted to fund government expenditure. On Wednesday, the finance minister reset the budget process by tabling a new fiscal framework and money bills, which contain reduced allocations for departments in a R2.5 trillion budget. He swapped a VAT increase for a fuel levy hike, already an unpopular move for opposition parties. But Maswanganyi said paying taxes is unavoidable. 'It would not be right that every time the state talks about increasing taxes we encourage protest. We are not going to run a state on populism.' Chairperson of the standing committee on public accounts, Songezo Zibi, said the budget events of the last few months have, however, necessitated a debate over the powers of a finance minister to introduce tax hikes. 'The finance minister must bring proposals to parliament which are actionable, and parliament should also not use its power arbitrarily to arrive at outcomes which are detrimental.' Parliament's budget head, Dumisani Jantjies, said the legislature had a duty to probe the budget and is legally competent to make changes. ALSO READ: SCOPA chair Zibi says time to get budget process back on track
IOL News
17-05-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Serious irregularities found in Msunduzi Municipality's management
Msunduzi Local Municipality has come under the spotlight after the Auditor-General South Africa presented the local government audit outcomes of the Municipal Financial Management Act (MFMA) to the KZN Legislature-Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta). Image: Doctor Ngcobo Independent Newspapers The Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA) found several problems with projects in KwaZulu-Natal municipalities more especially the Msunduzi Municipality. The AGSA looked at 15 infrastructure projects in the eThekwini, Msunduzi, uMhlathuze, KwaDukuza, Okhahlamba and uMkhanyakude municipalities. The AGSA said there were five new projects and 10 projects where they did follow-ups on the prior year findings and continued auditing the project as part of its life cycle. Nomalungelo Mkhize, AGSA Business Unit Leader in KZN, presented the local government audit outcomes of the Municipal Financial Management Act (MFMA) to the KZN Legislature-Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) on Tuesday. In the Msunduzi Municipality (MM), the AGSA found: Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. 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Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ MM did not earn revenue from landfill sites because the weighbridge digitiser at the municipal landfill site had been out of order for six months in 2019-20. Vehicles entering the site were not weighed and, therefore, there was no record of tonnage deposited. MM made salary payments from December 2016 to July 2019 to an employee who never reported for duty from their appointment date. The AGSA stated that the municipality received no services in return for the payments made. MM did not take reasonable measures at the New England landfill site to prevent pollution or degradation of the environment from occurring, continuing or recurring. The MM was non- compliant with the National Environmental Management Act MM failed to implement credit control and debt collection policy by not disconnecting or restricting services, nor arranging debt recovery with consumer debtors. This led to significant unpaid debts, resulting in the write-off of some consumer debtors as bad debts in the 2020-21 financial year. In 2021-22, prepaid electricity consumers with prepaid meters did not purchase electricity, and management did not address this due to the lack of timely internal audits to identify tampered or bypassed meters. The AGSA stated that the non-compliance may have resulted in a financial loss for the MM MM awarded a contract for constructing the Copesville Reservoir in February 2020, set to finish in November 2021. Due to poor planning and project management, the project was delayed by 22 months, incurring extra costs without changing the scope of work. The AGSA stated that the project is still incomplete at 95%. the accounting officer paid scarce skills allowances to certain employees without evidence of eligibility or an approved policy. Despite a council resolution to stop these payments, they were reinstated in 2023/2024 without prior approval. The accounting officer has not facilitated recovery or approval processes for these allowances, nor approved the related policy. MM municipality failed to collect revenue that became due in December 2019 from a service provider for the disposal of timber in terms of the service level agreement. Anthony Waldhausen, chairperson of the Msunduzi Association of Residents,Ratepayers and Civics (MARRC) said they noted the AGSA report and they were aghast at the material irregularities at the revenue not billed at the landfill site. Waldhausen said many residents complained about the situation at the landfill site and how they experienced delays to enter the landfill site. He said most left their refuse outside the landfill site out of frustration. 'It is the norm at the municipality where most of the municipal equipment and vehicles are never repaired and maintained. This shows that the municipality is completely dysfunctional. The other irregularities reported was that of salary paid to a manager that never reported for duty for five years. This is a dereliction of duty by the municipal manager to not address irregularity in time. This is gross negligence and poor consequence management against the manager,' Waldhausen said. Waldhausen said every effort of intervention to improve the situation at the municipality is not working. 'Municipal staff are unprofessional and unethical and this behaviour needs to urgently be addressed by the current acting municipal manager. They should recover the money for the past five years even if it means attaching the manager's pension. We as residents cannot continue to pay for poor service delivery and unethical municipal staff,' Waldhausen said. Anthony Waldhausen is co-founder and chairperson for the Msunduzi Association of Residents, Ratepayers and Civics (MARRC). Image: Supplied
Eyewitness News
15-05-2025
- Business
- Eyewitness News
SABC board confident it can survive without bailout but wants 'government guarantee'
JOHANNESBURG - The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) board is confident that the public broadcaster can survive without another government bailout. But the struggling entity says it can't survive without a "government guarantee", which it requires when it must go out to the market to do business with other companies and institutions. The SABC has also called for the speedy finalisation of the SABC Bill to address the company's funding challenges by creating a new funding model. The board and management briefed Parliament's finance watchdog, SCOPA, on Wednesday about its audit outcomes and performance. Members of Parliament also questioned its financial sustainability and whether it will need another bailout, after receiving just more than R3 billion two years ago. Deputy chairperson, Nomvuyiso Batyi, said the SABC can survive without a bailout, but will need a guarantee from the government as the sole shareholder. READ: SABC requests broader concessions from Treasury to implement sections of PFMA "I need to contexualise that, yes, the SABC can survive without a bailout, however, this needs to be contexualised that any person who runs a company, a shareholder has a responsibility to plough back into that company." Group CEO Nomsa Chabeli said they are pushing for the passing of the SABC Bill because a new funding model has become urgent. "The current funding of the SABC is unsustainable. It would be remiss of me not to say that," said Chabeli. Chabeli said what the SABC is asking for is not another bailout, but to be properly funded to deliver on its public mandate.
