Cape Town – The auditor-general has flagged a massive irregular expenditure of R25.9 billion in entities under the Department of Public Enterprises.
The office of the AG also found some of the entities, including SAA and SA Express (SAX), have failed to submit financial statements on time.
The department has six state-owned entities reporting to it including Transnet, Eskom, SAA, SAX, Denel and Alexkor.
Acting business unit leader in the office of the AG Phumlani Rabonda was briefing the portfolio committee on public enterprises when he revealed the SOEs had serious problems.
He said the outcome of the entities had remained stagnant because Transnet and Eskom obtained qualified audit opinions.
“The overall outcome of the portfolio remained stagnant and that is as a result of Transnet and Eskom obtaining a qualified audit opinion on the completeness and accuracy of irregular expenditure disclosure. We have not yet completed the audit of SAA, SAX, Denel and Alexkor,” said Rabonda.
He said SAA and SAX were in business rescue and would conclude their financial statements soon.
Rabonda said with Denel their financial statements would be submitted next year.
“Coming to the space of irregular expenditure the portfolio in total incurred irregular expenditure of R25.9bn for the year under review. This is a reduction from R33bn that was incurred in the previous year. We therefore need to highlight for Eskom and Transnet as we indicated in the area of qualification that they were qualified on the completeness of irregular expenditure,” said Rabonda.
Political Bureau