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BL Premium reports that the Auditor-General (AG) has raised a red flag at the non-implementation of audit action plans at state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which continue to rack up billions in irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
For 2020/2021, the public enterprises portfolio incurred irregular expenditure of R25.9bn. The irregular expenditure, which was presented to parliament’s portfolio committee on public enterprises on Wednesday by the AG’s office, has been largely attributed to procurement and contract management irregularities at Eskom and Transnet. Though the AG has noted that the boards at the various SOEs have begun inculcating a zero-tolerance culture against irregular expenditure and corruption after years of mismanagement and state capture, there remains little evidence of disciplinary steps being taken against offenders. Fhumulani Rabonda of the AG’s office confirmed this, adding “there was a lack of evidence to support the investigations that were conducted into financial misconduct at both Transnet and Eskom”. In response, public enterprises director-general Kgathatso Tlhakudi said steps had been taken to ensure that consequence management occurred at SOEs where required. But the challenge has been on the side of law enforcement, which has been slow to ensure that offenders faced their day in court. Tlhakudi also said fixing SOEs would take time because “we are dealing with businesses that were damaged by state capture and mismanagement ... the impatience to get a turnaround within two years, some from the executives that were at the SOEs, is not right”.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Thando Maeko at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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