The former Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration Eric Molale has been subpoenaed to appear before Parliamentary Committee on Statutory Bodies and State Enterprises to explain state affairs at the Public Enterprises Evaluation and Privatization Agency (PEEPA).
Top of the to-do list for Molale is to explain to the committee the failure to set up a board of directors for PEEPA as well as the ‘direct’ hiring of its CEO.
Few months back, Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Presidential Affairs and Public Administration Thuso Ramodimoosi confirmed that it is true that PEEPA has been operating without a fully functional Board since November 2017 when 6 out of 7 of the Board members contracts expired.
“As a result of this circumstance the Chief Executive Officer currently reports to the Minister through the Permanent Secretary,” stated Ramodimoosi at the time.
He further said that all issues that require the Boards approval are currently waiting for the appointment of a new Board. Ramodimoosi said the appointment of a new Board will occur as soon as possible. He did not committee himself to the time frame to appoint the board to address the challenges that the CEO Moumakwa is going through currently.
This week, PEEPA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Obakeng Moumakwa who was appointed by Molale without an input of the board appeared before the Parliamentary committee.
Moumakwa acknowledged to the committee that he is being compromised on the job as he could not make most of the business decisions without board approval. He stated that there is limited progress within the organization delivering it mandate.
“The list of the proposed board members is circulating and it is expected to be concluded soon. There are delays in some approvals of the privatization master plan,” said Moumakwa.
The Statutory Bodies and State Enterprises committee chairman MP Samson Guma said that he is of the view that it is a deliberate decision to delay the operation of a full board of directors. He added that he observed that PEEPA is not the only one in that situation.
