ATC190212: Report of the Standing Committee on Finance on the Public Investment Corporation Amendment Bill [B1 – 2018], dated 12 February 2019

Finance Standing Committee

The following report replaces the report of the Standing Committee on Finance which was published page 5 in ATC No 11 dated 13 February 2019.

 

Report of the Standing Committee on Finance on the Public Investment Corporation Amendment Bill [B1 – 2018], dated 12 February 2019

 

The Standing Committee on Finance, having considered the Public Investment Corporation Amendment Bill [B1 – 2018] on 12 February 2019 report as follows:

 

Following various allegations of wrong-doing by the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) in the public domain and the concerns of the trade unions and pensioners in the public sector that the PIC was making questionable investments, and representations by the trade unions, individual pensioners and the PIC to the Standing Committee on Finance (ScoF) in this regard, the Committee arranged several briefings with the major parties concerned in 2017 and adopted a resolution on 18 October 2017 to introduce a Bill in Parliament that would seek to address these issues.

The Committee obtained permission from the National Assembly to process the Committee Bill on 29 May 2018, but meetings and public hearings and deliberations began in April 2018 through a draft Committee Bill.

 

Following the Committee resolution of 18 October 2017 to effect amendments to the PIC Act, Mr David Maynier of the Democratic Alliance introduced a Private Members Bill in the National Assembly on 17 January 2018, covering many of the issues in the 18 October 2017 Committee resolution.

 

There were discussions with Mr Maynier to merge his Bill with the Committee Bill but there was no agreement on this, and the Committee decided to process both Mr Maynier’s and the Committee Bill simultaneously.

 

Mr Maynier’s Private Members Bill required the National Assembly to follow a public nomination process to recommend to the Minister a person to be appointed as the Chairperson of the Board. Other members of the Board were to be appointed by the Minister in consultation with Cabinet. Of the non-executive members of the Board, each major depositor could appoint one member and only one member to represent one or more registered trade unions. Unlike the Committee Bill, the Private Member’s Bill gives no indication whether the threshold of 10 per cent would allow a depositor to nominate a Board member. Furthermore, the Private Member’s Bill does not provide any guidelines that the PIC should seek to take into account when implementing the instructions of the depositors.

 

The majority in the Committee therefore decided to reject the motion of desirability, referred to in rule 286(4)(i) of the Rules of the National Assembly, on the Public Investment Corporation Amendment Bill [B 1 – 2018].

 

 

 

The DA reserves its rights.

Report to be considered.