Following the recent receipt of a condemnatory report by the Auditor-General in which irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure was detailed at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA), the agency’s board says it continues to institute actions to improve operations at the organisation through greater emphasis on transparency and accountability.

PRASA chairperson Popo Molefe confirmed in a statement on Wednesday that the board had initiated a comprehensive skills and qualifications audit across the entire company as part of a process to make the company ready to manage its new fleet of trains and to prevent fruitless and wasteful expenditure caused by the inflated salaries of individuals who had faked their qualifications.

This followed the recent dismisal of PRASA CEO Lucky Montana amid a cloud of controversy and the exit of PRASA head of engineering services Daniel Mthimkhulu, who was currently being sued by the parastatal for lying about his qualifications.

“Transport Minister Dipuo Peters engaged PRASA about the urgent need for a comprehensive audit of all academic qualifications by staff.

“Transparency and accountability should be accorded greater importance in the future when weighing up the protection of executive decisions against disclosure. We must be able to publicly justify our decisions immediately,” noted Molefe.

The company was, meanwhile, awaiting the release of a report by the Public Protector, which Molefe said had been delayed following requests from PRASA staff to make further submissions.

Potential informants had been requested to support the proceedings of the Auditor-General and the Public Protector.

The board was also expecting a legal opinion about the prospects of recovering funds from former employees accused of falsifying their qualifications, while further actions deliberated on included civil criminal proceedings and blacklisting affected persons from working in the State.

“We are also aware of stakeholders who are aggrieved by our actions. More so, those who appear to have been benefiting from unstructured arrangements with PRASA.”

“We would like a win-win situation which will ensure transparency and accountability as the foundation of partnership with stakeholders.  This relationship must result in the creation of jobs and growth that seeks to address challenges as identified in the National Development Plan,” Molefe commented.