Release: immediate Despite the new funding model issued by the Treasury, the Road Accident Fund (RAF) is still insolvent and has a R42-million backlog. It is therefore unable to carry out its mandate, to provide compensation for personal injury claims. The RAF cannot be sustainable going forward unless dramatic changes are effected in the organisation and the R42 billion backlog is paid off. The Treasury needs to seriously consider revising its funding model; the current fuel levy model the RAF uses is unsustainable. The longer this situation continues the longer the 297 000 victims of road accidents will have to wait for payouts. The reasons for the backlog are multifaceted and although part of the problem arises from the fact that the state owned road accident insurance enterprise was allocated only R2.5 billion, a mere fraction of what is requires to carry out its mandate, there are still some issues of concern. Currently, much of the R2,5 billion that the RAF was allocated is spent on settling its own legal costs instead of compensating road accident victims. The DA believes that the RAF needs to make use of the services of arbitration as a means to settle disputes between parties, and resort to legal action only as a last resort. It is also unacceptable that the RAF has still not reduced their staff numbers, and continues to be the biggest employer of legal practitioners in the country, despite being insolvent. They have also continued to headhunt lawyers from law firms at great expense. The RAF does not need expensive lawyers to process road accident claims, this is work that can be performed by an effectively trained administrator. Significantly, the RAF has had an interim board for the past 3 years - one of a great many public institutions that do not have permanent leadership - undoubtedly, this has added to the lack of focus by the RAF and undermined its ability to properly carry out its mandate. The Department of Transport needs to follow the procedures set out in the RAF Act and appoint a permanent board as a matter of urgency. The DA will be asking questions as to why the process of appointing a permanent board has taken so long, who is responsible for it and what action has been taken against them. The RAF's failure to carry out its mandate is yet again an indication of the ANC-led government's failure to effectively run its enterprises. They should outsource some of their functions and consider innovative ways of getting themselves out of the insolvency trap.