MPs will, after all, get a chance to quiz state-owned oil company PetroSA about the circumstances of its double payment of R15-million for oil condensate arranged by Sandi Majali’s Imvume Management, and Imvume’s subsequent R11-million donation to the African National Congress (ANC).
In an apparent volte-face, Parliament’s minerals and energy committee, which initially said it would not take up the issue, will now hold a hearing later this year but only as part of its annual meeting with PetroSA. Committee chairman Nathi Mthethwa also said he would ask the Mail & Guardian to present evidence.
And the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) is likely to meet officials from the Central Energy Fund, and related com-panies like PetroSA, within the next month.
The M&G reported a fortnight ago that PetroSA had departed from its usual procedure by paying Imvume in advance for feedstock for its Mossel Bay refinery, and that the company had gone on to donate R11-million to the African National Congress. Imvume could not pay its supplier, Swiss-based Glencore, which demanded that PetroSA make up the shortfall before it delivered the condensate.
Mthethwa initially told Independent Newspapers the committee could not be expected to follow up every media allegation. A Democratic Alliance (DA) request for hearings was based on ”inaccurate” information, he added.
Speaking on SAFM on Thursday, he said the committee was involved in investigating mining accidents, and asked: ”Are the lives of those miners less important than that money?”
But the committee decided on Wednesday to schedule a hearing — not immediately, as the DA requested, but when it had an opening in its programme, most likely in late August or September.
The meeting is likely to be preceded by questions in Scopa, which should address the issue before end-June. If it is left any later, MPs say, local government elections will disrupt the parliamentary programme, and the hearing may be delayed.
The question of the double payment is not explicitly addressed in PetroSA’s 2003/04 results, but Auditor General Shauket Fakie, in his report on the company’s financial statements, raises an ”emphasis of matter” — an expression of concern that is serious, but not serious enough to undermine the accounts’ accuracy.
Fakie says internal controls over feedstock and procurement contracts were inadequate but he had enough information to assess the veracity of the company’s figures.
The income statement for the period also includes a provision for doubtful debts of R17,6-million — which appears to match PetroSA’s claim against Imvume.
The Inkatha Freedom Party’s Gavin Woods has already written to Fakie asking him to investigate.