Treasury not informed of SFF oil sale

SOUTH Africa’s state-owned Strategic Fuel Fund (SFF) did not inform the Treasury it would sell 10 million barrels of crude oil reserves, as required by law, the auditor-general said in a report to Parliament yesterday. The SFF sold the crude reserves for R3.9 billion, the auditor-general said. The SFF had previously said it sold the oil for R5bn. The crude was sold at $28 (R383) a barrel in December, when oil prices were at an eight-year low, as part of a ministerial directive to rotate its strategic stocks. “The accounting authority did not exercise reasonable care to ensure the safeguarding of the assets of the public entity, as required in terms… of the Public Finance Management Act,” the auditor-general said in SFF’s annual report. The SFF is facing a separate investigation for making a bid to buy Chevron’s local assets without seeking clearance. – Reuters RAND WATCH: The rand firmed yesterday, shaking off a slight dip in sentiment towards emerging market currencies to resume a recent rally as the dollar stumbled ahead of the first debate between the two US presidential candidates. At 5pm, it was bid at R13.64 against the dollar. With no significant domestic data releases in the session, the rand looked offshore for direction and took advantage of investors’ dollar jitters. It touched a session best of R13.62 and briefly looked poised to test resistance around R13.40 before stalling as some investors continued to cash-in on the recent rally.