MK Party opens criminal case over Treasury’s controversial IFMS project

In a bold move, the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) has officially opened criminal charges of fraud and corruption against the National Treasury.

This significant development unfolded on Monday as MK Party leader David Skosana and party MP Des van Rooyen led a delegation of MPs to the Brooklyn police station to file the charges pertaining to the controversial Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS).

The IFMS, awarded to Oracle in 2017, promised to overhaul municipal financial management in South Africa.

However, years into its conception, the system has not been operational, costing the South African taxpayer millions.

Speaking to SABC News, Van Rooyen expressed the party’s discontent with the matter.

“Now, because we are dealing with a ministry, so here we are saying the executive authority, as well as the accounting officer, must account to the nation about what happened. And that goes also to the leadership of Oracle, that goes also to the leadership of the Seta (Sector Education and Training Authority).

“We think the investigation that will be conducted by our law-enforcement agents will (find out) who was behind this irregular expenditure. Here we are speaking of quite a substantial amount of money.

“The outcome of this case could not only affect the leaders involved but could also set legal precedents regarding government accountability,” he said.

The backdrop to these allegations includes an investigation by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), which indicated irregularities in the award process of the IFMS contract.

Last week, in a statement the MK Party said it had noted with shock that the National Treasury intended to take the SIU report on IFMS on review and that it was to renegotiate its contract with Oracle.

The party’s spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela said this was communicated by the National Treasury director-general, Dr Duncan Pieterse to the Standing Committee on Finance (SCOF) during its meeting on National Treasury’s annual performance report.

“It is worth noting that according to the Auditor-General of South Africa, National Treasury failed to disclose fruitless and wasteful expenditure of R400 million incurred as a result of payments for the technical support and maintenance on licences for the IFMS from which no value was derived.”

Ndhlela said the review process by National Treasury was delaying the implementation of the SIU recommendations.

“The contract renegotiation process initiated by National Treasury must be brought to a halt and National Treasury must engage Department of Public Administration to identify officials at National Treasury who have been (mentioned) by the SIU.

“Further, the SIU must recover the R400m that has been spent irregularly.

The minister needs to take steps to safeguard the assets, especially where senior officials appear hesitant to apply consequence management.”

The Mercury