Cape Town - The acting chief executive of the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa), Hishaam Emeran, said there had been steps in the recovery and rebuilding of the entity.
He made the statement when he briefed the standing committee on public accounts on the implementation of corrective measures at Prasa, including investigations.
Emeran noted that performance of Prasa had been dismal with the entity achieving 19% of its targets in 2021.
“An achievement of 59% of the performance target in the last financial year is up from 19% the previous year.
“This improvement is in the number of critical corridors recovered, the stations that have been rebuilt, and the lines that have been reintroduced.”
He said plans were under way to fix resignalling and run more trains, especially during peak hours.
Emeran said capital spend exceeded allocation by 8% with R13.5 billion being spent versus the R12.6bn allocation.
The Rail Safety permit was extended by 29 months, effectively extended until August 2025.
He also said there was a significant decline in security occurrences on asset related crime.
The acting CEO said there has been a considerable investment in capacity and skills.
“Appointments of executives are under way to address high leadership instability. Key positions are now filled: Group CEO, Chief Human Capital, Group Company Secretary and Chief Audit Executive.”
Acting security head Alexio Papadopulo said Prasa Protection Services had formulated security plans that were being implemented.
“We have had huge success in the Western Cape and Kwa-Zulu Natal, where the problems of extortion were rife. We have managed to deal with the issues accordingly.”
Acting procurement officer Asif Rehman said the irregular expenditure had been decreasing since 2016/17, with a notable decrease in 2019/20.
He said there were, however, increases in the subsequent years due to the spending on those contracts previously declared irregular.
“(The) majority of contracts declared irregular are multi-year contracts. Once the process is concluded the irregular expenditure will be submitted to the National Treasury for condonation.”
Rehman said Prasa management was addressing the R8.9bn irregular expenditure yet to be submitted for determination test.
“Internal Audit is currently conducting a determination test on R 9.6bn. Initiatives to enhance internal control are in progress,” he said.
Rehman told Scopa that the condonation process was initiated even as losses were not incurred and value for money was achieved.
Cape Times