Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) wants the SABC management to account for irregularities in the appointment of service providers.
The SABC leadership is set to face a grilling when it appears before Scopa on Tuesday morning. The last time the SABC appeared before Scopa in July, the leadership of the public broadcaster was criticised for lack of planning with regards to supply chain management.
The committee said that it was concerned about the abuse of deviations and expansions that have created monopolies in certain areas of procurement. “The committee has resolved to request the auditor-general to perform a special audit on expansions and deviations on all contracts with a life span of 10 years or more at the SABC,” a statement on behalf of Scopa chair Mkhuleko Hlengwa said in July.
“The second leg of this process will involve referring these matters to the special investigating unit forcriminal investigation.” In the invitation to Tuesday’s meeting, Hlengwa said they wanted the SABC to speak to them about contracts with companies including Inala Broadcast, Hitachi Vantara, Telkom, Jasco, Debt Collectors, SAP and 21st Century.
Hlengwa also wanted “names of persons responsible for procurement irregularities and what was done to have them account for such irregularities”. In July, Hlengwa said the extensions of contracts entered into with some of the companies in question were not supported by the National Treasury and some were declared irregular by the auditor-general.
“Equally of concern to the committee, the SABC was unable to answer questions on information provided by them, which speaks to the extent of the shortcomings of the SABC,” he said at the time. SABC spokesperson Mmoni Seapolelo said the SABC had noted all the concerns raised by Scopa and viewed the guidance received seriously.
“In its endeavour to ensure that the public broadcaster is fully compliant, we welcome any further interventions by Scopa that will ensure governance and any ethical lapses are exposed and duly dealt with,” she said. The appearance of the SABC before Scopa comes as the corporation faced more pressure to drop its plans to retrench 600 workers and 1 200 freelancers.
Sunday World previously reported that the public broadcaster’s bosses were facing pressure from parliament, the ANC and unions to drop the plan to cut the headcount.
