Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) has given National Treasury three weeks to come up with a way forward after the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) concluded that an almost R1-billion contract with Oracle was irregular.
The integrated financial management system (IFMS), which was intended to integrate the financial management of national and provincial government, is still not complete after almost 20 years.
The SIU has recommended that the IT vendor be blacklisted. It also plans to institute civil proceedings to cancel the IFMS contract and recover the money if possible.
A possible cloud solution from Oracle has also been put on hold.
In September 2023, the SIU made findings related to corruption, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, the supply chain management system, and conflict of interests on the tender bid at the National Treasury regarding the IFMS.
The SIU indicated that the Auditor-General has described the project as a fruitless and wasteful expenditure because the National Treasury has not received value for money.