The uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party has laid charges of fraud and corruption against the National Treasury on Tuesday at Brooklyn police in Pretoria.
MKP Members of Parliament went to the SAPS Brooklyn Police Station in Hillcrest.
This in relation to the failed Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS).
The IMFS contract, which was awarded in 2017, involved the purchase of a system from Oracle with the promise of integration and improvements in municipal finances.
To date, the system has not been utilised and has cost South African taxpayers millions.
Members of MKP were joined by Tshwane MK Abel Tau.
MKP MP Des Van Rooyen says the party has opened a case against the National Treasury, Oracle and SETA.
“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 SETA.
We think the investigation that will be conducted by our law enforcement agents will exact who were behind this irregular expenditure. Here we are speaking of quite a substantial amount of money.”
“What we have picked up in our daily execution of our duties in Parliament is that there is a contract that was fraudulently and in a corrupt fashion, managed by the National Treasury, and this contract was meant to deal with the introduction of information management system of all government departments in our country, yet that system doesn’t exist today even though an amount of R822 million was spent in this regard,” said former Minister of Finance Des Van Rooyen, who is now MK Party MP.
“The system was supposed to be up and running in 2016 and national Treasury has all along been paying R68 million per year for a system and licenses that do not exist,” he said.
Van Rooyen said as MK Party they support the introduction of the said information management system as it is working well in other African countries like Uganda, but that what they are concerned about is that a lot of money has been paid out from the Treasury without any demonstrable value.
He lamented the fact that parties like the DA have not said anything about this particular case of corruption at the National Treasury.
Asked whether the MK Party would approach the Public Protector’s office in this regard, Van Rooyen said that course of action shall be determined by the way the police handle the charges that MK Party has just filed against the National Treasury.
“Law-enforcement agencies please do your work and as MK Party we will pull all stops to make sure that this matter is resolved and brought to its legal conclusion,” enthused Van Rooyen.
“We were told about state capture every day but now we are seeing the real state capture here at the National Treasury,” said MK Party MP David Skhosana.
“We hope that this case against the National Treasury, which has been opened by MK Party, will be investigated thoroughly and not be swept under the carpet,” he said.