Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke has begun her work to prevent corruption in procurement at Eskom after President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed her to perform real time audits.
This was after Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster to deal with load shedding.
The disaster regulations allow for emergency procurement.
When Covid-19 hit the country in 2020 Ramaphosa appointed the Auditor-General and the Special Investigating Unit to conduct probes into corruption.
Some of the cases were referred to court after suspects were arrested for looting PPE money.
Maluleke said she had begun her consultations with a number of stakeholders at Eskom to address issues they would look at.
The country has been experiencing various stages of blackouts over the last few months.
This led to Ramaphosa to appoint Kgosientsho Ramokgopa as Minister of Electricity.
After the declaration of the state of disaster, the president said the Auditor-General would perform real time audits to prevent corruption.
Maluleke said it was still early days.
“On the energy crisis, we noted the announcement made by the president and the regulations that were promulgated not long ago. We welcome the opportunity to add value to the credibility of processes in terms of responding to this disaster.
“We welcome the opportunity to still serve as an independent assurance provider to government and still continuing to build confidence in the public to protect resources, limiting leakages and ensuring that resources that are allocated are spent in the best way possible for the purpose in which they were intended. It is still early days in the journey for now,” said Maluleke.
Maluleke was briefing lawmakers in the national legislature.
She said she was busy engaging a number of stakeholders involved in the Eskom matter.
“Once we have engaged with all the stakeholders, as the audit office, we will shape our own intervention and that is going to be informed by how we assess the risk and the resources we will deploy in addressing those risks,” said Maluleke.
She said they would be able to cover everything that was required of them in monitoring the use of funds in procurement.
They wanted to ensure that the money what it was intended.
The emergency that affected the entire country through Eskom’s energy crisis showed that if state institutions worked together they could achieve required results.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Current Affairs