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The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) is concerned that the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) deliberately ignores National Treasury regulations and the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) something which has resulted in their finances being in a bad state.

The committee has noticed that Sanral has very high irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure as a result of not following supply chain management processes. For the financial year 2016/2017 Sanral’s irregular expenditure accumulated to R10bn and fruitless expenditure is R15m which are huge amounts because taxpayers’ money should not be wasted in such a manner.

The committee is also concerned with the unsolicited bids that bind Sanral to compensate suppliers if projects fail. This is the case with the N1/N2 tollgate which cost the entity R15m which amounts to wasteful and fruitless expenditure. The impair losses at Sanral is a major challenge which can cripple Sanral. There are two investigations against Saral from the Special Investigating Unit and the Public Protector. Scopa is going to contact those institutions to check progress of these investigations.

The large number of expansions and deviations is also concerning, particularly because most of the expansions and deviations could have been avoided if Sanral could have done proper planning. Deviations and expansions are a serious problem in government departments and state owned entities and this is because officials know they can get away with lack of planning.

There is a common factor in these deviations which shows that specifications are made to suit certain companies which makes it easier for corrupt officials to claim that only certain companies can offer the services.

“As Scopa we are saying that deviations and expansions must be under exceptional cases and not a norm” said the committee Chairperson Mr Themba Godi.

Issued by PParliamentary Communication Services on behalf of the Chairperson of Scopa, Themba Godi