Treasury defends Eskom irregular expenditure reporting exemption
The National Treasury has defended exempting Eskom from disclosing irregular and fruitless expenditure in their financial statements.
This follows in a special government gazette by the Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana, on Friday.
In a statement on Monday, Treasury said “this exemption still requires Eskom to disclose financial and non-financial information on irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure but only in its annual report.
"All other institutions are required, by law, to report irregular as well as fruitless and wasteful expenditure in the annual report and the annual financial statements.”
They note: "By allowing Eskom to report on irregular and fruitless and wasteful expenditure in its annual report and not in its financial statements, the National Treasury ensures that reporting transparency and accountability is not compromised and still made public as currently required, while mitigating the risks that could arise if these transactions are reported in the annual financial statements."
Treasury says this approach to reporting on irregular and fruitless and wasteful expenditure is in line with the response of President Cyril Ramaphosa to state capture and corruption in that it allows them to focus on identifying corrupt or suspicious expenditure, or expenditure made in bad faith.
They insist: “Eskom is not exempted from ensuring that it takes effective and appropriate steps to prevent irregular, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure."
They go on to say that as was the case with a similar exemption provided to Transnet last year, the National Treasury’s Office of the Accountant-General (OAG) ensures that any information on irregular and fruitless and wasteful expenditure not published in the financial statements is still reviewed, but not as part of the financial statements.
However, the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) spokesperson, Trevor Shaku, says the exemption will enable corruption at Eskom.
"This … is an attempt by the ANC government to conceal the gross mismanagement, incompetence and corruption at Eskom from the public,” says Shaku.
"This move does not surprise us. It is in line with their collective attempt to block any accountability on Eskom corruption and mismanagement; corruption and mismanagement that have consequently brought load shedding and continue to create conditions for the implementation of load shedding into the future."
