THE Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Parliament, Cape Town, on Wednesday, 6 March.
Scopa spokeswoman, Faith Ndenze said the primary purpose of the MoU is to strengthen the relationship between Scopa and the SIU concerning investigating and reporting on irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure of public funds.
She said most importantly, the signing of the MoU assists in the formal referral of certain pressing matters from Scopa to the SIU, as the SIU doesn't identify specific matters to investigate.
"Matters referred by Scopa to the SIU for investigation or for the motivation for a proclamation include the Eskom intelligence report and the National Skills Fund.
“Scopa believes that the SIU will continue to prioritise these matters, even after the dissolution of the sixth Parliament. In fact, the SIU will ensure that in its handover report to Scopa in the seventh Parliament, these matters are flagged for consideration,” she said.
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Ndzenze said Scopa received updates from the SIU on maladministration, malpractice and corruption uncovered during its investigations at state institutions.
“It has noted specific concerns raised with respect to the high levels of corruption, maladministration, malpractice, lack of consequence management, and delays in prosecutions. These result in the failure of the state to recover money owed to it,” said Ndzenze.
She added that during the sixth Parliament, the SIU has consistently briefed Scopa on its investigations, including state capture matters and a lack of consequence management in state institutions to implement SIU’s referrals.
Ndzenze said Scopa intervened by requesting the Presidency to devise a mechanism to ensure that all SIU referrals are implemented.
“This led to the Presidency establishing a monitoring and tracking tool that ensures every referral from the SIU is implemented for disciplinary action intervention. This has resulted in Eskom and Transnet restricting suppliers implicated in SIU investigations on their own supplier's databases."
She further mentioned that both parties acknowledged the importance of consultation, mutual support and co-operation on aspects such as disclosure of information, reporting and co-operation and assistance to ensure financial oversight and accountability of state institutions.
