The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Friday raised concerns about alleged failure of the Financial Services Board (FSB) and institutions to respond to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance regarding the scandal surrounding retailer Steinhoff International.

This comes as the chairperson of the committee, Yunus Carrim, only received three responses despite writing to a number of institutions in December requesting them to provide information within seven days on the scandal surrounding the "accounting irregularities" at Steinhoff.

Steinhoff's "accounting irregularities" caused its share price to crash, wiping billions of rand of government pension invested through asset manager, the PIC.

The GEPF, through the PIC, owned about R28-billion in Steinhoff‚ about 10 percent of the shares of the company, but only one percent of the total assets of the Fund. But following the massive decline in Steinhoff's share price‚ the GEPF's investment was worth a little over just R2-billion.

Carrim wrote to the FSB, Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), Independent Regulatory Board of Auditors (IRBA), Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), National Treasury, Public Investment Corporation (PIC), and the South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) requesting more information about Steinhoff trading.

But the DA said that committee members have only received three responses, including responses from IRBA chief executive Bernard Agulhas, Sarb governor Lesetja Kganyago, and GPEF acting executive Linda Mateza.

DA spokesperson on finance, David Maynier, said that it was "completely unacceptable" for the other institutions, including the FSB, JSE, PIC, and National Treasury, to have failed to respond to the committee.

"That is why I have written to the chairperson of the standing committee on finance, Yunus Carrim, requesting him to light a fire under the defaulters and demand that they immediately respond to the request for information on the scandal surrounding 'accounting irregularities' at Steinhoff International," Maynier said.

In his letter to Carrim, Maynier wrote: "I would be grateful, therefore, if you would consider writing back to the defaulters demanding an immediate response, preferably by close of business on Monday 22 January 2018."

The committee is set to have hearings on the Steinhoff scandal at the end of this month. Depending on outstanding administrative issues, the hearings will be on 30 or 31 January.