By Nkhensani Chauke
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to release the investigative report on the R400 million Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) financial losses by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana.
EFF spokesperson Leigh-Ann Mathys said the call was influenced by information that was provided by the Auditor-General before the Parliament’s finance committee, which stated that a corrupt and fraudulent tender awarded to Oracle resulted in financial losses exceeding R400 million.
Mathys said in a statement on Wednesday that the IMFS contract was awarded in the 2017, which included the purchase of a system from Oracle with promises of integration and improvements in municipal finances.
“The system only saw the light because corrupt officials within the National Treasury engineered a programmethat had no material benefits for the government, only to resign later and profit from the same corrupt tender while in the private sector,” she said
The EFF said the loss reflected incompetence in the Treasury, which was struggling to help drive economic growth and create jobs.
“The same National Treasury is misleading Parliament into implementing budget cuts, stiffing economic growthand causing the retrenchment of teachers.
“The National Treasury has done nothing to demonstrate that this award was not corrupt. Instead, it has undermined the work of the AG-SA and the SIU, all in an effort to protect corrupt officials. We call on the AG-SA to fully utilise its legislative powers to pursue this matter to its natural conclusion and to open a case with the South African Police Service,” she said
In March, the Treasury came under fire from Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) for persisting in claiming that the project was above board.
The IFMS has undergone various iterations of planning and implementation, with its main objective to unify the financial management of national and provincial departments into a comprehensive system.
However, a functional system is yet to materialise.
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