The Reserve Bank has rejected a bid under the Promotion of Access to Information Act to have the report on the failure of the Saambou banking group last year made public, the Business Day newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The SARB argued that releasing the report would jeopardise the country’s financial welfare.
The newspaper speculated that the bank’s cagey response indicated that the ”regulatory shortcomings” referred to in the report extended beyond Saambou.
Democratic Alliance finance representative Raenette Taljaard applied in February to get sight of the report that was commissioned by Registrar of Banks Christo Wiese from auditing firm KPMG.
KPMG was originally commissioned to probe ”possible undesirable practices” that may have been adopted by Saambou before it was placed under curatorship in February last year, following a run on deposits of about R1-billion.
However, Wiese, Louw and the SARB have denied that the probe covered any alleged money laundering or insider trading.
Questions have been raised about the extent to which illegal actions hastened the collapse of Saambou — then South Africa’s seventh largest bank.
Business Day reported that the SARB had said it was exempt from providing the report on the basis of sections 42 and 44 of the Promotion of Access to Information Act.
Section 42 allows a public body to refuse a request ”if its disclosure would be likely to materially jeopardise the economic interest or financial welfare of the republic or the ability of the government to manage the economy effectively”.
Section 44 provides for refusal to disclose if disclosure ”could reasonably be expected to frustrate the deliberative process in a public body or between public bodies”.
Business Day quoted Taljaard as saying the SARB’s reaction to her application was ”worrying”.
Without the report, it would also make a review of banking legislation currently underway more difficult because legislators would not be able to assess whether the new amendments would adequately address regulatory lapses. – Sapa