Some organs of state are resisting paying the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) money owed for the work it has undertaken, and it has resorted to asking justice minister Mmamoloko Kubayi to intervene.
The minister said in a written reply to a question in parliament by DA justice spokesperson Glynnis Breytenbach that the SIU, which has saved the state billions of rand through its investigations of corruption and contract irregularities, was owed R1.1bn by national, provincial and local government and public entities.
The SIU has asked the minister to intervene to recover R552m of the amount owed by writing to the ministers of the various defaulting departments. This is in cases where state institutions that have not responded to SIU letters of demand or have requested information/documentation, which has since been submitted, but the debt remains outstanding.
SIU head Andy Mothibi told MPs last year that the financial sustainability of his organisation was placed in jeopardy by the nonpayment by organs of state, which also owe municipalities billions of rand for unpaid rates and taxes as well as the department of public works and infrastructure for rent. Suppliers are also left waiting beyond the stipulated 30 days for payment for services rendered.
SIU investigations are authorised by proclamations issued by President Cyril Ramaphosa and are not necessarily agreed to by the entities investigated.
National government departments owed R200m (R149m owed for more than 122 days) at end-September, provincial government about R350m (R312m), local government about R220m (R203m) and public entities about R370m (R319m).
Some institutions do not acknowledge the existence of the debt even when pointed out by the auditor-general.
“Some state institutions indicate that they have no funds, and they are requested by the SIU to approach the Treasury to apply for an exemption in terms of the SIU Act,” Kubayi said.
“Various institutions have taken up this route; however, the Treasury consistently rejects these applications, encouraging those institutions to find ways and means of settling SIU debts. In some instances, these institutions submit a payment plan, where the debt is settled in smaller, manageable tranches.
“Some state institutions indicate that they did not budget for these services. For these reasons, they do not want to incur unauthorised expenditure. Some further indicate that they did not request or initiate the process of these investigations; therefore, they are not prepared to pay these debts.
“Some institutions, regardless of efforts made by the SIU to meet and find out what the issues are, refuse to settle these debts. Regardless of countless engagements, resubmission of information, escalations to the Treasury and to ministers heading those portfolios, debts remain unsettled. Some institutions do not acknowledge the existence of the debt even when pointed out by the auditor-general.”
Kubayi said the SIU submitted invoices on a monthly basis, supported by time sheets detailing hours worked and activities performed for a particular month. A progress report accompanied the invoice to highlight where the investigation was, to ensure that the state institutions were kept abreast, and that they were not taken by surprise by the contents of the final presidential report at the conclusion of the investigation.
“Due to the turnaround of officials in the state institutions, in some instances, there are no handover processes, which means information submitted by the SIU falls through the cracks. In these instances, copies of the information need to be collated and resubmitted,” Kubayi said.
Some institutions had indicated they were only willing to pay once the documents or additional information was received.
There were some debts that would never be recovered based on the history of the debt and the analysis performed by the SIU to determine prospects of recoverability, and would have to be written off, the minister said.
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