SA Express finally tables financial statements

South African Express has finally tabled its financial statements in Parliament. The airline recorded losses to the tune of R590 million for the financial year that ended on the 31st of March 2019.

The airline has also received a disclaimer audit opinion from the Auditor General.

The books show the company is still struggling.

The airline also disclosed fruitless and wasteful expenditure worth over R50 million, while irregular expenditure stood at R834 million.

But, the Auditor General’s report points out that fruitless and wasteful expenditure was understated by R19.6 million.

The AG says it’s also impractical to determine the actual value of irregular expenditure due to inadequate evidence.

Meanwhile, the SAA board briefed Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts – Scopa – on its failure to table financial statements for the past two years.

SAA Board member Martin Kingston says: “We could table our accounts on a liquidation basis; to do so we will have to place the company into liquidation and there are consequences which are catastrophic.”

The SAA board believes that option was also not feasible and they cannot do so without the shareholder’s consent.

Acting SAA CFO Deon Fredericks says:”We can have our accounts signed by tomorrow with a disclaimed opinion, the fuel suppliers would pull their facilities. I will have to find about R581 million tomorrow, no flights would take off this is just to indicate that the house is on fire.”