SIU points finger at Letsoalo for governance failures, mismanagement claims at RAF

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has stacked a number of governance deficiencies and mismanagement allegations against the former CEO of the Road Accident Fund (RAF), Collins Letsoalo, on the third day of a parliamentary inquiry. 
 
This includes bypassing the board and interfering in procurement matters. 
 
Letsoalo’s contract ended in August and he has in the past dismissed the claims, saying, in fact, that his decisions led to saving the fund millions of rand.

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Appearing before Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) on Friday, the SIU presented a detailed account of numerous investigations it has carried out at the RAF since 2021. 
 
SIU head, Andy Mothibi, said it was their view that the litany of governance failures at the fund gave rise to mismanagement and the inability of the fund to deliver on its mandate to compensate accident victims. 
 
This included the cancellation of a panel of attorneys to consider the claims without an alternative in place. 
 
"This has cost the RAF immensely, and if it was done appropriately, it would possibly not have incurred those costs."
 
Letsoalo has also been linked to irregularity in a R66 million lease for the fund’s Johannesburg office. 
 
"The former CEO interfered in the procurement process in that he authorised the re-evaluation of the already evaluated bid by the bid evaluation committee and the bid adjudication committee."
 
The SIU said that Letsoalo was still to respond to the findings of this investigation.