Finances at the Gateway Airports Authority Limited (GAAL) which is in charge of the Polokwane International Airport in Limpopo have once again come under scrutiny.
This as GAAL failed to generate enough revenue from its more than fifty million rand budget allocation for 2021. During a recent provincial SCOPA sitting, it emerged that the entity had been operating without permanent senior managers.
The finances of GAAL have not improved since it produced a disclaimer audit outcome in 2014.
In the years that followed, it received a series of unqualified reports. This means the financial statements were fairly represented.
In 2021, it obtained an adverse audit outcome where financial statements are misrepresented.
Its operating license was also downgraded by the Civil Aviation Authority last year, an occurrence that further supported allegations of maladministration.
During a recent SCOPA meeting, opposition parties heard that management at the entity had collapsed.
“There’s a clear indication that management has collapsed. There is no senior management, the audit committee does not exist, majority of the board members have left the institution and the ability by the authority to make financial decisions has led to the collapse of GAAL as way back 17/18 financial years,” Jacques Smalle, Limpopo DA leader.
The GAAL board says it’s in the process of implementing a strategy to revive finances at the entity. Shareholder government departments, including Treasury and the Transport Department have reportedly given GAAL the green light to appoint permanent senior managers.
“We received approvals around October, November last year from the shareholder department and from Treasury for us to go and advertise for most of these critical positions. All in all, there is a total of ten critical positions that have been advertised,” Victor Xaba, GAAL board chairperson.
The 2020/2021 auditor general’s report paints a bleak outlook for the entity. In the year under review, GAAL incurred irregular expenditure of more than R5-million rand. It had also been operating on a shortfall of R20-million. The business community in the province is of the view that a poor state of finances will likely cripple the entity going into the new financial year.
“It is either we have incompetent people who are running the institution or these people who are competent, do not have financial resources, both of these things will point out to either corruption or irregular practices,” Albert Jeleni, Limpopo Chamber of Commerce president.
GAAL has also failed to generate targeted revenues of R20-million rand. It has only collected revenue of R6-million.
