Department refutes claims on Prasa investigations

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Pretoria – The Department of Transport has refuted media reports alleging that Transport Minister Dipuo Peters has instructed the board of Prasa to stop ongoing investigations into contracts worth billions of rands awarded by Prasa.

“We wish to place on record that the allegations are both malicious and a deliberate distortion of the truth.

“Minister Peters, as a shareholder in Prasa [Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa] has the responsibility to ensure that Prasa delivers on its core mandate and that such delivery is underpinned by prudent and good governance principles,” the department said in a statement.

The matters pertaining to Prasa were in the public discourse recently, giving an impression that the Prasa administration and the board were in shambles and in disarray.

The gloomy picture painted about Prasa warranted urgent and decisive interventions, the department said.

The Minister engaged the board of Prasa and they were in agreement that priority be placed on improving good governance and bringing about stability at the entity.

This led to the secondment of the acting CEO, Collins Letsoalo, with the sole purpose of improving internal controls, stabilising the administration and inculcating prudent financial management at the entity.

“Every public institution is underpinned by the principles of accountability, transparency and prudent financial management. It can never be correct that when the Minister implores those vested with the responsibility to account and invoke the principles of good governance… [that such a call can] be deliberately misconstrued as an instruction to thwart investigations.

“It is categorically denied that the Minister at any stage instructed any member of the Prasa Board and/or administration to stop any investigation of any nature. The Minister, however, implored that investigations be speedily concluded, as opposed to unlimited and ever ongoing investigations costing the entity millions of rands without any tangible report tabled.

“It is an undeniable fact that some of the investigations have been protracted for a lengthy period of time without any indication of such investigations coming to a conclusion.

“It is mischievous to allege or even think that the Minister can stand in the way of good governance… She is a proponent of an administration free of corruption and some of the investigations currently underway were undertaken at her request with her unconditional and unwavering support to rid the entity of maladministration and corruption,” the department said.

The Minister had instructed Prasa in writing to conduct the investigation into matters identified in the Public Protector's report.

Minister Peters, together with the Board Chairperson and the Chief Procurement Officer of the National Treasury, made a conscious decision on a consolidated approach where Prasa, the Office of the Auditor General and the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer will run concurrent but independent investigations, said the department. - SAnews.gov.za