Cape Town - Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) has threatened to get National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to issue subpoenas to the board of Denel.
Scopa chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa (IFP) made the threat after not a single board member attended a meeting to discuss the state-owned arms manufacturer’s finances.
Scopa invited Denel to on Tuesday’s meeting two weeks ago – on May 23.
The board members were meant to update Scopa on the cash crunch at the entity; its irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure; and the non-tabling of its annual report.
The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) was also on hand with an update on investigations it had carried out into alleged criminal activities at Denel.
At the start of the meeting, Deputy Minister of Public Enterprises Obed Bapela said Denel chairperson Gloria Serobe, who also wrote to Scopa, had told him she was travelling.
She wrote that when she tried to get other board members to attend, she found that most of them were engaged and the rest were travelling abroad.
This infuriated Hlengwa, who said the board’s non-appearance was “a dereliction of duty and the undermining of Parliament”.
Hlengwa said he would reconvene the meeting on Wednesday next week, June 14.
“If the board is not here, I will make a formal proposal to the committee that the board is subpoenaed to appear before Parliament.”
Hlengwa said that had the meeting been about getting Denel another state bailout, the board would have attended.
Committee member Benedicta van Minnen (DA) reminded the committee that in the past five years, Denel had received R9 billion in bailouts without any dividends issued to the state, which is the main shareholder.
“So I would argue that there are nine billion reasons why the board should be here today. I cannot find any reason whatsoever why they are not here.
“I think it is appalling that the accounting authority with a record like that has got better things to do,” she said.
Denel was represented by group chief executive officer Mike Kgobe, but Hlengwa said Kgobe was part of management, and could not be expected to play the role of accounting authority.