OUTA commends SCOPA for hard reaction to SANRAL

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) has repeatedly expressed concern and disgust at SANRAL’s lack of financial management discipline and audit processes, which has seen gross levels of unnecessary expenses undertaken by this state owned entity.

Furthermore, OUTA’s updated research on SANRAL’s inflated road construction costs, points to an organization that has allowed gross over-payment of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) by more than double, costing the public an extra R10 billion. This is yet another example of the lack of fiduciary duties by SANRAL’s senior management.

“The public are becoming fed up with state entities like SANRAL, who now find themselves in a dire financial situation as a result of their own poor financial management and unacceptable leadership behaviour,” says Wayne Duvenage, OUTA’s Chairperson. “What makes matters worse is these problems occur year after year and very little is done by the Minister of Transport, whose responsibility is to hold the SANRAL Board and leadership accountable for these serious transgressions.”

OUTA will shortly be lodging complaints to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA), the Public Protector and other institutions of authority, over highly dubious accounting practices reflected in SANRAL’s annual financials. The South African National Roads Agency Ltd (SANRAL) continue to account their irrecoverable e-toll debt as a trade receivable asset, despite the clear evidence of their inability to collect this debt – which now stands at R8 billion.

We believe SANRAL’s Board and their executive leadership must now be taken to task and held accountable, in order to rectify this situation of poor management, auditing and financial controls. We hope and trust SCOPA will exercise every avenue possible to ensure these matters of poor governance are addressed at SANRAL, once and for all.