Johannesburg - Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has criticised how irregular expenditure was allowed to balloon at Prasa, into billions of rand over successive financial years, with little done to curb it or hold those responsible accountable.
On Monday, the State Capture Commission of Inquiry heard testimony related to Parliament’s oversight from former transport portfolio committee chairperson Dikeledi Magadzi.
Magadzi told the inquiry that while there were problems with several state-owned entities (SOEs) that reported to the committee, irregular expenditure at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) was of particular concern, as it was undergoing a restructuring process which included the purchase of new trains.
According to Magadzi, the committee had found it difficult to conduct its oversight work due to the frequent change of ministers, board members and chief executive officers at the parastatal.
She accused the former Prasa board under then chairperson Popo Molefe of having frustrated the work of the committee.
“Whenever we wanted information or wanted to do oversight, Mr Molefe was always reminding us that we are overstepping our mark with respect to the oversight that we want to do and that we are interfering with his fiduciary duties. These are some of the things which we were actually experiencing with him,” Magadzi said.
She added that the committee was always disappointed when it sought to meet with the entire Prasa board with Molefe being the only one showing up.
“Even when we were dealing with matters that are related to audit and risk, the chairperson of risk will never be there. It will only be the chairperson of the board,” she said.
The Commission had heard from former and late auditor-general Kimi Makwetu, that irregular expenditure had ballooned from R100-million in the 2013/14 financial year to R24.2-billion in 2017/18.
Zondo said he was shocked by the figures and that it had alarmed him that they were going up every year as if there was no oversight exercised by both ministers and Parliament.
“You would have thought that somebody would hit the roof and say this can no longer be allowed to continue and that the following year it would actually go down drastically. It is like all the people who were supposed to exercise oversight, it's like they did not care about this trend and yet it’s a trend that should shock them and make them do something they’ve never done before,” he said.
Magadzi accused the Prasa leadership of having failed over the years to follow up on the concerns raised by Makwetu, and the recommendations that her committee issued on the irregular expenditure and maladministration within the SOE.
“To the dismay of the committee, many times the issues that would be raised either by the AG or the committee would find themselves being repeated over and over,” she said.
Makwetu had also previously criticized the committee of having failed to properly follow up in terms of corrective actions, including consequence management on the part of Prasa.
She pointed out that the committee had lacked systems to assist it in follow ups and ensure the implementation of its recommendations.
The inquiry continues.
Political Bureau