Sanral mum on ‘dodgy’ R40m payment in e-tolls contract

The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) has baulked at commenting on allegations that Electronic Toll Collection (ETC), which manages the collection of e-tolls in South Africa, agreed to pay R40 million to an allegedly dodgy subcontractor two weeks before ETC won the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) e-tolls contract.

Sanral general manager for communications Vusi Mona this week declined to respond to a list of questions e-mailed to Sanral on 3 March related to these allegations and to a request last week for additional comment after the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) publicly released further information about the alleged dodgy payments.

Moneyweb published an article on 4 March about the initial allegations made by Outa.

The article did not contain any comment from Sanral because the road agency indicated that it was unable to meet the deadline to provide comment.

Still no word from Mbalula

Sanral changed tack this week, with Mona stating: “Sanral is unfortunately not able to respond to your questions until Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula makes a public pronouncement on the e-toll matter.

“As an implementing agent of government, Sanral continues to be guided by the minister and cabinet’s pronouncement on this matter.”

This is a reference to an undertaking given by Mbalula earlier this month that an announcement on the future of e-tolls will be made before the end of this month.

ALSO READ: Sanral lists legal steps it can take against e-toll delinquents

Outa said last week it has received a copy of the 2009 contract between ETC, which is owned by Austrian-based Kapsch TrafficCom, and South African sub-contractor Proash.

It said the contract confirms the problems Outa recently raised about the ETC-Proash payments and even more concerns.

Outa said a whistleblower sent it the contract after Outa recently exposed the existence of the unknown contract and raised questions about its purpose.

Multiple signs of duplicity

“The flaws in the contract suggest it was written as a way of paying a backhander, or as an enrichment scheme, linked to Sanral’s award to ETC of the main e-tolls collection and management contract for the Gauteng Open Road Tolling [Gort] project.

“The contract shows that ETC hired Proash – a small business with no track record – to manage B-BBEE [broad based black economic empowerment] issues for R40 million, payable over nine-and a-half years, signing the flimsy service-level agreement about 10 days before ETC signed with Sanral.

“Outa previously confirmed that at least R10 million was paid over the first three years of the contract but no work appears to have been done,” it said.

Outa said concerns arising from the contract include company details, Vat records and the legitimacy of the services supposedly delivered.

READ MORE: Mboweni ‘dreaming’ if he thinks e-tolling will work – Outa’s Duvenage

Outa said it has provided ETC with a copy of this contract and its concerns to encourage an investigation into this matter.

Outa director for accountability, Advocate Stefanie Fick, said in the organisation’s letter to ETC: “It is Outa’s understanding that payments made to Proash were claimed back from Sanral and did not form part of the Gort Project payment they received.

“ETC should be mindful that any funds that were spent on payments to ETC were taxpayers’ money, and therefore it is critical to establish if the agreement and payments to Proash were legitimate.

“We once again give you our undertaking to cooperate with any independent investigations on this matter. We once again request that you make your findings public and also share your findings with Outa,” Fick said.

This article first appeared on Moneyweb and was republished with permission.

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