Parliameant’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) has criticised the Road Accident Fund (RAF) for not resolving its dispute with the Auditor-General (AG) regarding its 2020/2021 financial report.
The RAF had instituted a legal challenge against the audited opinion of the AG for that financial year. The parties agreed to settle the matter out of court but after they failed to agree, it seems the matter may end up with the courts again.
The RAF has now requested Parliament to give it until the end of January next year to form a technical committee with the AG in an attempt to resolve the issue.
SCOPA Chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa is not impressed, “The question that becomes to what extent is this elongated consultation is going to be because now there is a pretext that this is a whole new matter. That is not right. That is the fundamentally what is at the heart. We are going around in circles. We have met with ARB, we have met with the accounting officer, we have met with the Auditor-General. And I am going to sound like a broken record to say ultimately the conclusion that have been reached and the determinations that have been made even confirmed last week by the National Treasury, the use of the IPSOS is not correct. And then you want an extension to January 2024 of technical aspects to deal with technical aspects of the OAG to make determination. They have already made determination. ”
