{"id":45822,"date":"2013-09-12T12:58:06","date_gmt":"2013-09-12T10:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=45822"},"modified":"2013-09-13T09:35:49","modified_gmt":"2013-09-13T07:35:49","slug":"sanral-racks-up-r3-3-billion-in-irregular-expenditure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/45822\/sanral-racks-up-r3-3-billion-in-irregular-expenditure\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanral racks up R3.3 billion in &#8220;irregular&#8221; expenditure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0<a title=\"Democratic Alliance\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/forum\/showthread.php\/1696-DA-Democratic-Alliance\">Democratic\u00a0Alliance<\/a> has revealed that South African National Roads Agency Limited (<a title=\"Sanral\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/forum\/showthread.php\/1722-SANRAL-South-African-National-Roads-Association-Limited\">Sanral<\/a>) recorded R3.3 billion in irregular expenditure for the 2012\/13 financial year.<\/p>\n<p>The state entity&#8217;s annual report was tabled in Parliament on Thursday (12 September).<\/p>\n<p>Sanral has endured a\u00a0prolonged delay in the implementation of its e-toll plans as part of a Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP), thanks in large part to legal action taken by the\u00a0Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (<a title=\"Outa\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/forum\/showthread.php\/1949-OUTA-Opposition-to-Urban-Tolling-Alliance\">Outa<\/a>) who claims that most road users opposed to such a system.<\/p>\n<p>On 25 January 2013, the Constitutional Court granted Outa leave to take the matter to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein. The case is expected to be heard in September.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Ian Ollis\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/forum\/showthread.php\/4935-Ian-Ollis\">Ian Ollis<\/a>, DA shadow minister of transport said in a statement on Thursday that Sanral had incurred R2.09 billion in irregular expenditure during the 2011\/12 financial year.<\/p>\n<p>Details of the irregular expenditure in 2012\/13 include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>R2.4 billion through a procurement model for routine road maintenance projects, without approval of the Minister of Finance and adherence to procurement regulations;<\/li>\n<li>R594.3 million expenditure on non-competitive bidding, approved by Sanral\u2019s Contracts Committee without notifying the Auditor-General; and<\/li>\n<li>R233.1 million on supplementary agreements for newly incorporated roads, deviating from Supply Chain Management regulations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;Sanral has repeatedly demonstrated that it views itself above the public by forcing e-tolling in Gauteng despite widespread opposition. The entity has now demonstrated that it also believes that it does not have to adhere to financial mismanagement policies and legislation,&#8221; Ollis said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Sanral is not above the law and should be held accountable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The DA said it will request that the portfolio committee chairperson, Ruth Bhengu, summon Sanral\u2019s board chairperson, Tembakazi Mnyaka; Sanral CEO, <a title=\"Nazir Alli\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/forum\/showthread.php\/1735-Nazir-Alli\">Nazir Alli<\/a>; and Transport Minister, Dipuo Peters, to Parliament to explain a lack of financial and legal compliance.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, credit rating agency <a title=\"Moody\u2019s Investors Service\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/forum\/showthread.php\/1973-Moody-s\">Moody\u2019s Investors Service<\/a> downgraded Sanral&#8217;s credit rating and placed it on review for further downgrade.<\/p>\n<p>The decision was driven by the deterioration in the company\u2019s cash flow, Moody\u2019s said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis cash-flow strain has arisen from the prolonged delay in the realisation of e-toll revenue earmarked to repay Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) related debt, and casts doubt on the company\u2019s financial health in the medium term,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<p>Moody\u2019s downgraded Sanral\u2019s long-term issuer ratings to Baa3 (global scale, local and foreign currency) from Baa2, and to A3.za (South African national scale) from A2.za.<\/p>\n<p>Sanral, the ratings group noted, has acquired debt of R20 billion to finance the GFIP, with 50% of the debt guaranteed by the government.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSanral\u2019s debt stock has substantially increased to an estimated R36.2 billion as at 31 March 2013, up from R6.2 billion in 2007, mainly due to GFIP,\u201d Moody\u2019s said.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More on Sanral and e-tolls<\/h3>\n<p><a title=\"Moody\u2019s downgrades Sanral\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/45461\/moodys-downgrades-sanral\/\"><strong>Moody\u2019s downgrades Sanral<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Fuel levy vs e-tolls\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/general\/45226\/fuel-levy-vs-e-tolls\/\"><strong>Fuel levy vs e-tolls<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"No e-tolls in a DA-governed Gauteng\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/44898\/no-e-tolls-in-a-da-governed-gauteng\/\"><strong>No e-tolls in a DA-governed Gauteng<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Sanral dismisses DA e-toll claims\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/44798\/sanral-dismisses-da-claims\/\"><strong>Sanral dismisses DA e-toll claims<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Permalink to R381 million to track down e-toll transgressors?\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/general\/44764\/r381-million-to-track-down-e-toll-transgressors\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">R381 million to track down e-toll transgressors?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Sanral\u2019s e-toll advertising budget soars\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/44408\/sanrals-e-toll-advertising-budget-soars\/\"><strong>Sanral\u2019s e-toll advertising budget soars<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Sanral seeks R1.48 billion from banks\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/43373\/sanral-seeks-r1-48-billion-from-banks\/\"><strong>Sanral seeks R1.48 billion from banks<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Democratic Alliance has revealed that Sanral recorded R3.3 billion in irregular expenditure for the 2012\/13 financial year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":45214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6647,2061,6646,26,1806,1988,429,2693],"class_list":["post-45822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-alli","tag-democratic-alliance","tag-dipuo-peters","tag-headline","tag-moodys-investors-service","tag-outa","tag-sanral","tag-tembakazi-mnyaka"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45822"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45892,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45822\/revisions\/45892"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}