Johannesburg - The Treasury has committed itself to ensuring
that a settlement is reached with respect to the money owed by the Free State
government to civil engineering group‚ Sanyati Holdings [JSE:SAN].
Sanyati went into liquidation earlier this year after the
Free State government failed to honour payments amounting to R60m.
Malcolm Lobban‚ the former CEO of Sanyati‚ said he had
struggled to work with the Free State‚ Limpopo and Eastern Cape.
Treasury has had the Free State roads department‚ most
departments in Limpopo and some in the Eastern Cape under national
administration all of this year.
The opposition Democratic Alliance at the weekend said it
had received a letter from Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan detailing the
intervention.
"We deeply regret‚ however‚ that the payment was not
made in time to save the company and the approximately 2‚000 workers whose jobs
were lost. Our initial request to the National Treasury to release the R60m
owed to Sanyati was made almost three months ago‚ so it is unfortunate that it
took so long to reach settlement that the company could not be saved‚" DA
shadow minister of finance‚ Tim Harris said.
"National Treasury identified several breaches of the Public
Finance Management Act by the Free State Provincial Roads Department in their
letter to me. But the most common breach of the Act by government is of the
clause that requires service providers be paid within 30 days.
"Chronic disregard for this requirement across
government puts numerous companies at risk and imposes a massive cost on the
country in terms of jobs and economic growth. On-time payment by government is
an essential national standard that must be enforced by National
Treasury‚" he said.
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