CAPE TOWN - According to the Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Finance, Yunus Carrim, the public hearings on Steinhoff will not duplicate investigations into the company.
This comes after Carrim announced that the hearings on the embattled retail holdings company will be conducted jointly with the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) and the Public Service and Administration oversight committee.
The retailer’s share price crumbled after reports emerged of alleged “accounting irregularities and also following the resignation of its CEO, Markus Jooste.
Steinhoff is currently under investigation by regulators in both South Africa and Europe.
Carrim says that the parliamentary hearings, scheduled to take place on January 30 or 31, will be part of a greater process aimed at dealing with the matter.
“This is one of the biggest corporate scandals we have had in our country, and we are concerned to see what lessons we can learn from this”, says Carrim.
According to Carrim, the committees are concerned about all affected South Africans and not only public servants.
“The aim is to find out whether our regulatory bodies acted as they should have, in terms of the law”, says Carrim.
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Carrim has allegedly notified the Financial Services Board, the Reserve Bank, Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors and the JSE about the hearings.
The Public Investment Corporation and the Government Employees’ Pension Fund was also notified while Steinhoff will be invited to make a submission.
Meanwhile, just yesterday, The Democratic Alliance’s Shadow Minister of Finance, David Maynier said that his request to Carrim to schedule public hearings on the Steinhoff scandal, had not been responded to.
In an open letter to the Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Finance, Yunus Carrim on December 11, 2017, Maynier requested the public hearings on the scandal surrounding retail holding company, Steinhoff.
However, the Minister says that he had not received a formal reply to his request. Instead, a public statement was issued on December 12, 2017, which said that the committee will assume an oversight role.
“Working with the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, the Committee will play a full oversight role and will call the regulatory bodies, the National Treasury, the PIC, GEPF, Steinhoff representatives and any other stakeholders to account to Parliament as soon as it reconvenes in late January 2018”, said the statement.
Maynier said that it is important for every South African to be aware of irregularities that is happening on the economic forefront.
“We need to know what they knew, when they knew it, and what they did about it when it came to “accounting irregularities” at Steinhoff International Holdings N.V”.
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- BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE