By Odwa Mkentane
Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) has criticised the government for attempting to address the Road Accident Fund’s (RAF) financial crisis by seeking additional funding rather than tackling years of alleged mismanagement, corruption and maladministration.
This comes as the Department of Transport considers a new funding model for the troubled fund, including a possible reduction in the levy.
Speaking to VOC, OUTA CEO Wayne Duvenage said that, for years, under the leadership of people such as Collins Letsoalo and successive transport ministers, including Fikile Mbalula and Sindisiwe Chikunga, there has been a failure to address the alleged plundering and gross mismanagement of the fund.
“The problem is that government seems to believe that restructuring the funding model will resolve the crisis. It will not. They have to fix the system. The proverbial boot must come down, and certain people should lose their jobs, if not appear in court to answer for their actions. The government needs to take this seriously, and I do not understand why it has not done so. Perhaps certain people know too much. That is what we are seeing across government, where procurement processes have gone wrong. It is possible to identify who is involved, but those responsible are not held accountable,” said Duvenage.
Duvenage added that OUTA will be releasing a report on higher education in the coming weeks.
“If the President does not call for a commission of inquiry into higher education after seeing the networks we are exposing, we will be surprised. Coming back to accountability, there are several matters that need to be addressed,” Duvenage said.
Photo: OUTA/FB Page
VOC
