The Standing Committee on Finance, Standing Committee on Public Accounts and Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration held a joint briefing on the Steinhoff crisis today.
This was no more than an initial briefing that will provide the basis for the Committees to develop an overall strategy and programme to exercise Parliament’s oversight responsibility in respect of the regulators and other bodies investigating Steinhoff, as well as Steinhoff.
The role of the regulators and other bodies, and the progress reports received today, will be taken into account in shaping the Committees’ joint and respective programmes. They will also work closely with the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry and other committees.
Steinhoff assured the Committees that it will fully cooperate with the regulators and Parliament and, provide more information to Parliament, regarding the progress in their PriceWaterCoopers internal investigations.
The Committees welcomed Steinhoff’s decision to open a case against Mr Markus Jooste with the Hawks, but urged them to do the same with other people who are alleged to have committed irregularities. The Committees feel that they need to follow up on progress with regard to the cases that were opened with the Hawks.
They recognized the elusive and highly complex, technical, global nature of the crisis and the variety of bodies locally and globally that are investigating Steinhoff and, expressed the need for cooperation among.
Furthermore, the Committees also recognize the onerous processes these investigations have to subscribe to.
However, the Committees did not get the sense that the Financial Services Board (FSB), Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (IRBA) and National Treasury (NT) are being decisive enough in pursuing the Steinhoff matter, especially given its gravity and huge implications.
They urged these bodies to be thorough but also swift, and undertook to actively monitor the progress. The Committees feel far more needs to be done, decisively and swiftly.
While recognizing that there are always risks in investment decisions, the Committees feel that the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) and Public Investment Corperation (PIC) have to draw clear lessons from their experience of Steinhoff and be more careful about their investment decisions.
The Standing Committee on Finance will accelerate its processing of the Committee and Private Members Bills that seek to ensure greater accountability to Parliament and compulsory representation of workers on the PIC board.
It will also expeditiously process legislation to give Independent Regulatory Board of Auditors (IRBA) more teeth to act against irregularities by auditors and write to the Minister of Finance, Mr Malusi Gigaba, to request that amendments by department be brought to Parliament by the end of March for finalization.
The Committees believe that the country has had to bear with more than its fair share of corporate scandals in recent months, including the allegations against KPMG, McKinsey, Naspers-MultiChoice, the Gupta companies, and now Steinhoff.
The Committees maintains that Parliament needs to tackle corporate greed and public sector corruption with equal vigor. Accordingly, they recognize that in any case, all so often, there are direct links between corruption in the public and private sectors.
The Committees emphasized that people in South Africa are fast reaching their tipping point on corruption.
Finally, both the relevant statutory bodies and parliament need to intensify their work in this regard, on behalf of the public.
Source: Parliament of the Republic of South Africa