The National Treasury has told Parliament that various state-owned entities have approached it for extra funding totaling nearly R10 billion. These include the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), Post Office and the Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa).
The National Treasury was briefing Parliament’s Standing Committee on Appropriations on its performance as well as measures taken to curb fraud and corruption related to coronavirus (COVID-19).
South Africa has been dogged by allegations of widespread corruption related to COVID-19 procurement.
National Treasury told Members of Parliament that it was too early for it to determine in finer details on how every cent has been spent.
According to Chief Director for Strategic Sourcing, Estelle Setan, the information will start trickling in by the end of the month.
“The information to the granular level required by the committee, we don’t have that information yet. We will provide with trends as to how much we are paying and who is spending on which supplier. Our first report in that much detail will be shared by the end of this month.”
Setan has added that Treasury did issue guidelines on how COVID-19 expenditure should be done.
Treasury also indicated to MPs that various government entities have made requests for extra funding.
Among others, the SABC is asking for R1,5billion and the Post Office is asking 4,9 billion. The Chief Director of SOE’s Oversight, Ravesh Rajlal, explains why the entities always find themselves in dire financial situations.
“They draft turn around plans but never implement them. We have spent R187 billion on recap programmes in recent years. For instance, Post Office, we have recap R11 billion but still, find in the same situation.”
In the video below, SABC applies for COVID-19 relief:
