THE Road Accident (RAF) has been grilled in Parliament for refusing to follow normal accounting standard, which would explain how R80 billion of taxpayers’ money was spent over the past two years.
RAF CEO Collins Letsoalo and the board appeared before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) on Wednesday, 19 April to answer on why they have not submitted their financial statement for 2021/2022 financial year.
The RAF received a disclaimer on its latest financial statements. But it accused the auditor-general (AG), saying the audit opinion was based on incorrect accounting standards and took her to court.
Scopa chairman Mkhuleko Hlengwa said problems at the RAF were self-created because the fund thought it was right and everybody else was wrong.
"I'm reminded of a song by Bill Medley and Gladys Knight Loving on Borrowed Time.
ALSO READ: Nsfas zaka ends up in WRONG hands!
"That is exactly where the RAF is because the bottom line is that nothing, absolutely nothing, zilch, zero, nada, lutho has changed from September 2022 to date. In fact, what we have is a vanity legal process of epic proportions,” said Hlengwa.
He said the legal action was based on arrogance from the board and Letsoalo.
"You are an island of correctness. Everybody else is wrong. The legal action has become a fishing expedition at the expense of the taxpayer," he said.
Letsoalo told the committee that the audit was done as if the RAF was an insurer instead of a social security fund.
He said they would be going to a mediator to resolve the issue.
"Our case proposition is that, AG, we are a security fund. And their proposition is that we are an insurer. We would have to find each other," he said.
He said as soon as they agree on the nature of what RAF is, everything else would be secondary.
"The current accounting standard which we employ should stand because we believe we are a social fund," said Letsoalo.
Some members of the committee proposed that the RAF board should be dissolved because it did not know what it was doing.
