The standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) is concerned by the high number of senior management vacancies and pending suspensions at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).

Scopa MPs conducted an oversight visit to the broadcaster's Auckland Park, Johannesburg, headquarters on Tuesday to find out the reasons for the scale of financial mismanagement at the SABC.

They found that many vacant positions at the SABC, particularly at senior management level, were due to leadership instability at the corporation, chairperson Themba Godi said on Tuesday.

"The committee is also concerned about the manner in which suspensions are being handled at the SABC. Scopa found that some suspensions, which are on full pay, can take up to more than a year to be resolved.

"This has a serious impact on the finances of the institution and if this way of dealing with suspensions is not remedied, it will have dire consequences for the SABC."

Scopa MPs spoke to SABC management, its newly-appointed interim board, and employees of the SABC's internal audit, supply chain management, and human resources sections.

It asked the SABC to furnish the committee with a list of all consultants the corporation had used in the past two years, which the Auditor General had mentioned in his annual report.

The committee wanted management to explain what it was doing about those employees who paid for services without contracts in place, which contributed to R5-billion in irregular expenditure.

Godi said Scopa intended working with everyone responsible for the SABC, to help it overcome all its problems. He congratulated the new interim board.

The portfolio committee on communications would conduct its own oversight visit to the SABC on Thursday.