Question NW1590 to the Minister of Transport
17 July 2023 - NW1590
Nolutshungu, Ms N to ask the Minister of Transport
(1)Whether she has met with the Cross-Border Road Transport Agency management to understand the challenges facing the entity and to find out if there are any serious allegations of irregular appointments and termination of employment contracts; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details; (2) whether she has been informed that the entity recently lost labour arbitrations cases involving senior managers because the Chief Executive Officer failed to take due diligence and perform his function in line with fiduciary duty expected to safeguard public finances; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, how will she hold the accounting officer of the Cross-Border Road Transport Agency accountable for all the financial losses as a result of the arbitration process?
Reply:
1. Attending to challenges relating to the operations of any entity falls within the ambit of the fiduciary duties of the Board. The Board then accounts to the Minister n line with the Shareholder compact, quarterly reports on performance amongst other. The Minister can therefore not meet with management of the C-BRTA on operational challenges, this is the duty of the Board. However, if there are such challenges, the Board has an obligation to investigate these and report to the Minister. Such a report will also be disclosed in the Annual Report of the entity that will be tabled in Parliament.
2. I have been advised that the C-BRTA has lost one labour arbitration case recently, and the Agency is studying the judgement in order to make a determination on the course of action. Performance and other career incidents of the Chief Executive Officer are the responsibility of the Board.