Scopa orders ex-RAF board to repay R11m legal fees

RAF's old board cooked the books with a dodgy accounting switch that hid hundreds of billions in payouts.

Switch slashed reported debt massively

• Former Road Accident Fund board jumped to IPSAS 42 back in March 2021.
• Liabilities plunged from roughly three hundred twenty-seven billion rands to about thirty-four billion.
• Long-term claims for medical care and lost income got excluded beyond twelve months.

Experts slam it as fake fix

• Witnesses at Scopa hearings called the move a blatant understatement of real obligations.
• Proper GRAP rules would show debts topping three hundred sixty-one billion or even five hundred billion.
• Accounting Standards Board plus Auditor-General ruled the change irregular and invalid.

Court fights burned millions uselessly

• RAF dragged the Auditor-General to Pretoria High Court over the adverse findings.
• Supreme Court of Appeal shot down appeals twice keeping the AG's stance solid.
• More than eleven million rands vanished on legal fees that Scopa wants ex-board members to repay personally.

Claimants suffer the fallout

• Hundreds of thousands of accident victims face endless delays for their compensation.
• Cash flow stays squeezed despite the paper-thin debt on records.
• Interim board finally dropped the fight accepting GRAP compliance now.

Governance mess exposed hard

• Skipping required deviation processes from GRAP created the whole mess.
• Real obligations for future care and earnings never disappeared just got hidden.
• Calls grow louder for tighter oversight to stop public fund manipulation.