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The Portfolio Committee on Public Works and Infrastructure notes the announcement from the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure on the department’s intention to issue a Request for Information for the redevelopment of the Telkom Towers complex through a public-private partnership model, which would include a rehabilitate-operate-transfer approach.
The committee recognises the importance of turning dormant state assets into productive public infrastructure. However, any proposal involving public funds must be approached with full fiscal discipline. The committee Chairperson, Ms Carol Phiri, said the Minister must ensure that every rand government is expected to spend under this proposed arrangement falls strictly within the approved budgeted allocation for Public Works and Infrastructure over the current Medium Term Expenditure Framework period.
The estimated cost of the Telkom Towers redevelopment, stated to be between R1.8 billion and R2.2 billion, cannot be treated as a public relations opportunity before Parliament and the public are assured that the funding implications have been properly assessed, budgeted for and tested against the affordability requirements that must guide any public-private partnership. These factors must be established before such announcements are made.
Everyone shares the objective of ensuring that government assets are used productively to generate income for the state. If such redevelopments can also create additional jobs, that is even more commendable. The committee’s concern is not with the objective of putting public assets to productive use, but rather with ensuring that this is done transparently, affordably and without avoiding accountability for previous failures.
The Chairperson is concerned that the Minister’s media announcements create the impression that he alone brings solutions where others have failed. This is not the case. “The build-operate-and-transfer model now being presented is the product of work initiated by the National Treasury in cooperation with, among others, former Minister Sihle Zikalala. While some people work collectively to advance solutions for the state, others appear too eager to step into the limelight and claim victories as their own,” said Ms Phiri.
The committee is also deeply concerned that the Minister knows there have been material irregularities in the procurement of the Telkom Towers complex. He also knows that the department has not properly brought this matter to finality through a transparent and complete forensic investigation.
“We must work according to the law and the Constitution. The PFMA [Public Finance Management Act] is clear. Where the state has suffered losses in the procurement of assets, those losses must be determined, the money must be recovered and the people responsible must be held to account,” said Ms Phiri.
Ms Phiri said the committee has tried to get a copy of the forensic report from the Minister. He must openly share information on how his department has been unable to get forensic investigating companies to perform this task properly. That information is essential if Parliament is to understand why the investigation has not been concluded and what must be done to bring it to finality.
For this reason, the committee has consistently asked for the forensic report on the investigation into Telkom Towers to be made available. The Minister’s continued refusal to share it undermines Parliament’s oversight work and delays the concrete action required to correct what went wrong.
It is therefore puzzling that the Minister appears to be using the public-private partnership announcement to sideline the incomplete forensic investigation. Redevelopment cannot be used to distract from accountability. Before any new model is advanced, the department must first provide concrete evidence that losses have been quantified, recovery processes have begun and those found responsible for wrongdoing are being brought to book.
The Chairperson is concerned that the Minister’s announcement is premature, and incorrect in timing and manner. This is because the accountability process has not been completed and Parliament has not been furnished with the information it requires to perform its constitutional oversight role.
The committee will continue to insist that fiscal prudence, transparency, recovery of public funds and consequence management must come before any attempt to present Telkom Towers as a successful reform project. South Africans deserve both the productive use of public assets and full accountability for the failures that caused those assets to become dormant and costly in the first place.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Republic of South Africa: The Parliament.
