Cape Town - Minister of Public Enterprises Lynne Brown informed Parliament on Tuesday that she will not be able to table the annual report and annual audited financial statements of SA Express for the 2016/2017 financial year by 30 September 2017.
In terms of the Public Finance Management Act, Brown is required to table the annual reports and results of the public entities for which she is responsible in Parliament within six months after the end of the financial year to which those statements relate.
The financial year of SA Express Airways ended on 31 March 2017.
SA Express has yet to submit the annual report, including audited annual financial statements for the 2016/2017 financial year to her, Brown said.
"In terms of the Companies Act, SA Express is required to demonstrate its ability to continue operating on a going concern basis for a period of at least 12 months after the signing of the annual financial statements by satisfying the solvency and liquidity test set out in the act," she informed Parliament in a letter dated 11 September 2017.
"SA Express has yet to satisfactorily demonstrate such ability to the Auditor General. As a result the audit cannot be completed in order to finalise the 2016/2017 annual financial statements."
Brown undertook to table the annual report and annual financial statements as soon as the going concern status of the airline has been resolved and the audit has been concluded.
At the end of August Fin24 reported that Brown told Parliament she wanted to recapitalise SA Express and was asking National Treasury for help.
SA Express appeared before Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) at the time to explain "the irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure" of R35m it incurred in the 2015/16 financial year.
The unaudited results for the 2016/2017 financial year showed that SA Express made a R234m loss in the 2016/2017 financial year after a R16.9m profit the previous year.
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