Parliament, Wednesday, 20 November 2019 – The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) believes that the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) Board should take full responsibility for the collapse of governance at the agency.
The committee held a hearing with Prasa today at Parliament to review the 2018 – 2019 financial statements. During the course of the hearing, it became apparent that the Prasa Board has failed to account on why the agency did not maintain complete governance records, including meeting minutes of the Board, its subcommittees and the executive committee.
The lack of these records has had a negative impact across the audit, as resolutions and other decisions taken could not be confirmed, including those taken subsequent to year-end. This is particularly unfortunate since the Board members were remunerated for attending those meetings while there are no minutes, resolutions and any record of decisions that were taken during those 10 Board meetings.
It also became apparent that the Board is distancing itself from the problems that led to the 2018 – 2019 audit opinion even though they were present at that time. It is concerning that the Board failed to account and explain what led to these problems.
Scopa also expects the speedy finalisation of the appointment of a permanent Board at Prasa. The committee believes that that will assist in stabilising the agency and contributes towards turning things around.
The Auditor-General South Africa (AG) has informed the committee that Prasa’s audit outcome for the current financial year has regressed to disclaimer after two financial years of a stagnant position of a qualified audit opinion with findings. The AG has reported that Prasa has failed to comply with supply chain management legislation when awarding contracts for large infrastructure related projects.
The committee heard that this has continued to trigger irregular expenditure which has resulted in Prasa being continuously ranked as one of the top offenders with regards to irregular expenditure in the public sector.
The committee is concerned with the fact that the Board of Prasa does not seem to be dealing with root causes of what caused the mess at the agency. It will make recommendations based on the responses it received from Prasa today.
According to the committee, the only way out of this predicament for Prasa is for the agency to convince the public by ensuring that those who are responsible are held accountable, and are removed to root out corruption. The committee would like to see an improved audit outcome from Prasa, and will schedule a date to call Prasa for another hearing.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF SCOPA, MR MKHULEKO HLENGWA.
For media enquiries, please contact the committee’s Media Officer:
Name: Ms Faith Ndenze
Parliamentary Communication Services
Tel: 021 403 8062
Cell: 081 377 0686
Email: fndenze@parliament.gov.za
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