PIC under scrutiny as Scopa demands answers on irregular expenditure

THE Public Investment Corporation’s (PIC) unlisted portfolio came up for scrutiny without wholly satisfying the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), which has scheduled another date to review auditor-general (AG).

- BANELE GININDZA

This is as the PIC appeared before Scopa on Wednesday to report mainly on the investments the entity has made on behalf of the Government Employees Pensions Fund (GEPF) and the Compensation Fund to address the ongoing financial and governance failures within the Compensation Fund and the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF).

Scopa followed up on the state of the Compensation Fund, which has received the same audit opinions for five consecutive years, with little to no improvement on the issues previously raised by the Auditor-General.

It has incurred more than 97.6% of irregular expenditure amounting to R467.7 million that has not been addressed, while 98% of fruitless and wasteful expenditure, totalling R558 million, remained unresolved.