The South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) has been one of the most recent departments to address Parliament on its irregular expenditure since the release of Auditor General Kimi Makwetu’s report was released.

The roads agency was accompanied by Transport Minister Dipuo Peters when it addressed Parliament on Tuesday.

This was the agency’s second attempt at giving Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (SCOPA) an update on interventions into its irregular expenditure.

SCOPA appeared unimpressed when SANRAL admitted that it had outsourced internal audit work at a cost of R15m-R20m a year.

Makwetu’s report pointed out that in 2013, R2.4bn worth of routine road maintenance was not done in compliance with the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act.

While SANRAL said these contracts were still in place, it highlighted that the amounts lost had been reduced to R1.5bn in 2015 and R1.1bn in 2016. SANRAL said all contracts that did not comply with the act would have expired by 2017.

SANRAL also said that the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act was not appropriate for its procurement purposes as it allowed major contractors to exploit the small businesses that provide services to its agency.

SCOPA chairman says law outweighs contracts

SCOPA chairman Themba Godi told the agency that it was not enough to reduce the value of money spent outside of the provisions of the act over multiple years, as the law existed longer than the contracts that were being questioned.

“Some of the contracts lasted three years with some having a two-year extension. The extensions were in place through a system adopted in 2002 until the auditor-general made a finding on the agency in 2013,” Godi said.

Inge Mulder, SANRAL’s chief financial officer said that the contracts were not cancelled because the transactions were not declared illegal. “We have been allowed to continue with the contracts until they run out and they are due to expire next year,” she said.