Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) administrator Bongisizwe Mpondo has ordered an investigation into the illegal leaking of confidential company documents related to a security tender.

Mpondo has directed the acting head of PRASA Security, Brigadier General (Ret) Tebogo Rakau, to investigate how the document found its way to an external party, in contravention of company policies.

PRASA is in the process of procuring the services of security service providers to assist with the protection of its infrastructure that has been increased vandalised and subject to theft during the national lockdown, which was implemented in an attempt to curb the spread of Covid-19.

This action is part of the clean-up campaign which started in December 2019 when Mpondo was appointed by Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula to bring stability to the rail agency after years of maladministration and other malfeasance.

Governance issues at PRASA were pointed out by the Office of the Public Protector in 2015 and also by reports of the Office of the Auditor-General (AG).

A few weeks ago, PRASA fired four senior officials in its protection services after they were found guilty by an internal disciplinary process of gross misconduct related to the irregular awarding of tenders.

This was in connection with security contracts that were found to have been irregular, which PRASA terminated several weeks ago in accordance with the recommendations of the Public Protector and the AG’s office.

Commenting on the investigation, Mpondo says the leaking of confidential documents, which were handled by a handful of senior people in the agency, is “of grave concern”.

“It shows that there is a clearly a fight-back campaign led by highly-placed individuals in PRASA against our efforts to rid the agency of corruption and maladministration,” he lamented, warning that individuals or companies who receive and distribute confidential company documents “are breaking the law” and that by doing so they are acting against the interests of PRASA and the people of South Africa, who are ultimately the shareholders of the rail agency.