Auditor-General needs to re-audit SA Express

I will today write to the Auditor-General (AG) to request an urgent re-audit of SA Express' activities. It was yesterday reported that SA Express' financial position for the previous year has been fraudulently misrepresented as a result of the entity's management providing incomplete information (see Business Times report).

The current annual report and financial statements for SA Express' 2010/2011 performance are therefore woefully inadequate as they do not reflect all the required information. We need a new report to give us an accurate summary of SA Express' financial position as of March 2011.

Two important steps need to be taken to get to the bottom of the situation at SA Express:

The Auditor-General, Terence Nombembe, needs to re-audit SA Express to get an accurate summation of its actual financial position.

Those responsible for withholding financial information about SA Express should be identified and held to account. Currently, auditing firm SizweNtsaluba is conducting a forensic investigation into SA Express' accounting practices, which should reveal who these people are.

Tomorrow, the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises will be briefed by SizweNtsaluba on the results of their forensic investigation. I will be using this opportunity to ask whether this investigation has revealed who is responsible for the fraudulent misrepresentation of SA Express' financial health. If it hasn't, the Democratic Alliance will ensure that an additional investigation is launched.

Thus far, all information points to there being serious problems with SA Express' accounting procedures, which creates ample opportunities for state resources to be misused. It is essential that those responsible are held accountable. A strong signal needs to be sent that state funds belong to the public, and need to be managed with this in mind. 

Statement issued by Pieter van Dalen MP, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Public Enterprises, November 21 2011

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