STATE ENTERPRISES BILL SPARKS TREASURY, FFC CONCERNS

STATE ENTERPRISES BILL SPARKS TREASURY, FFC CONCERNS

• 10 July 2025
• Parliament
• SA Legal Academy

National Treasury and the Financial & Fiscal Commission (FFC) have flagged concerns about the National State Enterprises Bill, certain provisions in which they respectively believe:

• could ‘undermine transparency and accountability’ in the entities’ financial management, and
• fail to address ‘longstanding governance … (issues)’.

This is according to a National Assembly Planning, Monitoring & Evaluation Committee media statement on its recent meeting, at which members received briefings from each institution on the Bill’s proposals. Among other things, presentation documents circulated at the meeting noted that:

• in terms of the Bill’s clause 22(3), only sections 47 and 48 of the 1999 Public Finance Management Act (listing & classification of public entities) would apply to the holding company and subsidiaries envisaged (flying in the face of constitutional requirements on transparency) (National Treasury and FFC)
• as a result, once in force the 2024 Public Procurement Act, including its preferential procurement framework, would not apply to them (National Treasury)
• the ‘centralised shareholder control model’ envisaged and the role of the President and proposed presidential advisory committee could open the door to political interference (FFC)
• in the absence of provisions for establishing ‘effective oversight structures’, financial accountability could not be guaranteed (FFC)
• in the absence of ‘clear provisions’ for consequence management, efforts to curb irregular/wasteful expenditure and/or corruption could well fail (FFC), and that
• implementation costs appear to have been overlooked.

Against that backdrop, the committee intends seeking ‘further guidance and legal advice’ before deciding whether to continue processing what appears to be a deeply flawed Bill.

• committee media statement
• Bill
• National Treasury presentation
• FFC presentation

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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