DA wants answers from Fransman
THE DA is intent on chewing on the carcass of Marius Fransman’s political career.
Not content with the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) deciding to close the matter of the billions spent on consultants by Fransman while he was MEC and which Fransman had to come and explain, the DA said the future of the investigation would be decided at a later stage.
Pierre Uys, a former MEC for health and current MPL, is also under investigation.
DA MPL Dennis Joseph said a decision on the way forward for the Fransman and Uys investigations would be taken at the next Scopa meeting, set for September 27.
“Fransman failed to take action against consultants who did not deliver on their respective mandates. This revelation is highly suspicious, and smacks of corruption and cronyism. The fact that Fransman can wastefully and recklessly spend public funds in this manner is a slap in the face to the people of this province,” Joseph said.
Fransman appeared before Scopa last week to explain the R5 billion spent on consultants during his term as public works and transport MEC, but not even he knows exactly why he was there or what further steps will be taken.
“I really don’t know if this matter is put to bed. I came to explain the spending and that I had nothing to do with it, but I really can’t say,” he said.
Scopa chairperson Ferlon Christians said he considered the matter closed, but the members of the committee decided to take a resolution at a later stage.
Scopa sat in July this year and was briefed by accounting officers from the departments of Health and of Public Works and Transport, based on the Auditor-General’s (AG) report into the use of consultants in both departments.
The AG also briefed the committee on the findings of a performance audit into both departments, which spent millions of rand on consultants.
The report was based on the findings from a sample of 11 consultancy projects with contracts amounting to R625m for Health, while 20 of the audited projects for Public Works stood at R328m.
The AG stated that the total spent on consultants amounted to R9.2bn (for both departments) for the period 2008 to 2011.
ANC MPL Carol Beerwinkel said the AG had initiated the investigation into consultancy nationwide.
“At that time our country went through a reform phase. We had to look at the value for money spent on consultants.
“The AG’s report was never to single out Fransman and Uys,” she explained.
Beerwinkel also said the chief financial officer at Transport and Public Works, advocate Chantal Smith, had explained in July that there was nothing wrong with the contracts.