Prasa board ignores order
To stop probe into graft
PASSENGER Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) bosses appear to have snubbed Transport Minister Dipuo Peters’s order that they halt a multimillion-rand investigation by a top law firm into fraud, corruption and maladministration at the parastatal.
When Peters first raised the alarm on Prasa’s “excessive spending” on the investigation by law firm Werkmans Attorneys in August, the agency had spent about R80million, she revealed in a letter to Prasa chairman Popo Molefe.
It has now emerged that the cost of the investigation had ballooned to R119-million by December. It is scheduled to be completed in June.
Peters warned in August that the money could be regarded as irregular expenditure and asked Molefe to close the investigation and produce a detailed report and outcome.
Werkmans Attorneys is investigating various irregularities found by auditor-general Kimi Makwetu in the parastatal’s 2014/15 financial year.
Among others, Makwetu found that the capital commitment for the purchase of new locomotives significantly increased by R1.3-billion – from R3.5-billion to R4.8-billion.
However, the number of locomotives expected for delivery declined from 88, as stated in the initial contract, to 70.
During his audit, Makwetu also discovered that the capital commitment for the purchase of rolling stock (fleet renewal programme) was R59.6-billion, which had been disclosed in the previous year (2013/14) as R51-billion.
In 2014/15, the agency incurred irregular expenditure to the amount of R550-million, according to Makwetu.
In the year up to the end of March last year, Prasa incurred irregular expenditure of R4.1-billion while another R9.8-billion in irregular expenditure was identified during the same period but relates to previous years.
Also part of Werkmans Attorneys’ probe is ex-public protector Thuli Madonsela’s August 2015 “Derailed” report which ordered Molefe to take disciplinary action on the findings of maladministration and improper conduct by former Prasa boss Lucky Montana, other executives and officials.
Madonsela also ordered National Treasury to conduct a forensic investigation into all Prasa contracts above R10-million awarded since 2012.
The National Treasury investigation was still ongoing in December.
Peters’s spokesman Ishmael Mnisi told Sowetan to refer its queries on the minister’s snub by Prasa to the agency.
“Ask them, they are better placed to respond,” Mnisi said.
Prasa spokeswoman Lillian Mofokeng denied that the agency has been asked to halt any investigations.
“The investigations are in the process of being concluded and there is an agreement reached with Werkmans to complete all work by June 2017,” Mofokeng said.