In Focus

Parliament welcomes VBS Mutual Bank Report detailing plunder of R2 billion

Finance Committee Chair Yunus Carrim said the collapse of VBS is a major setback for diversity and transformation in the financial sector.

Parliament’s standing committee on finance has welcomed the VBS Mutual Bank Report, which revealed nearly R2 billion was looted at the now collapsed bank.

The forensic report, authored by the Advocate Terry Motau, was released by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) last year.

The committee has called on the Hawks and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to act swiftly and decisively against those alleged to be responsible for wrongdoing.

“Without interfering with the internal investigations of the Hawks and NPA and consistent with our oversight role, we will call on the Hawks and NPA to report on progress in this regard,” said Yunus Carrim, Chairperson of the committee.

Carrim said they would be meeting with the SARB, Adv Motau, the National Treasury, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority, the Hawks, the NPA, the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (IRBA) and the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) over the report next month.

“Once again KPMG is accused of wrongdoing and we urge the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors to complete its investigation into their conduct expeditiously. We also urge the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants to not be lame and act decisively,” said Carrim.

He further added: “We need to learn the lessons from the collapse of VBS Mutual Bank to reduce the prospects of this happening in other financial institutions in future. Consideration needs to be given to an inquiry into whether SARB, National Treasury, the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, the South African Local Government Association and other relevant organs of state could have acted sooner on VBS and reduced the extent of its failures”

Thabo Baloyi
t.baloyi@politicalanalysis.co.za