Laws? What laws? SIU report lays bare SAA’s culture of looting
22 November 2023
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) interim report (see here) to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) on 21 November reads like a horror story of gross and excessive plundering of the once leading state-owned entity South African Airways (SAA).
The SIU investigation into SAA was proclaimed in January 2020, giving the SIU a broad mandate to investigate back to 2002, and its progress report illuminates the horrifying details of state capture and grand corruption at SAA, and gives insight into the airline’s collapse due to looting.
Depressingly, the SIU says it has received “new allegations in relation to the Takatso deal” which are now being assessed, hinting that corruption continues.
Scopa was also updated by the Auditor-General, who said that the audit for 2022/23 is underway. Audits for the four previous years have now been completed: all four years received audit disclaimers due to “material misstatements” in the financials. Poor record keeping was cited. Governance continues to be inadequate. The culture of failure to comply with procurement and contract law continues. Irregular expenditure increased from R22 billion to R44.5 billion over the four years audited. “Failure to implement consequence management encourages a culture where the disregard for legislation, policies and procedures thrives,” said the AG report (see here).