Johannesburg - The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has brought an application challenging the National Energy Regulator’s (Nersa) and the secrecy surrounding the decision to award power generation licences to Karpowership.
Outa believes the secrecy hides the financial implications of the deal, estimated to be more than R200 billion for the proposed 20-year contract.
"Outa’s application says that transparency is key to accountability in respect of the conferral of long-term state contracts. It is accordingly also in the public interest that the full record be made available.
"Outa's application — an application to compel — was filed on January 23, 2023, in the Pretoria High Court, asking the court to order Nersa to provide OUTA with 'a complete, unredacted record' of the Nersa decisions to award generation licences to Karpowership companies to operate powerships in the ports of Saldanha Bay, Coega, and Richards Bay," said an Outa statement.
Outa says that Nersa and Karpowership are opposing the application.
This action is part of Outa’s main application filed on April 26, 2022, which called on the court to review and set aside Nersa’s decisions to award the generation licences.
"The notice of motion in the main application called for Nersa to provide within 15 days copies of documents relating to the decisions, including the reasons for the decisions.
"This is in line with the rules of court, which envisage that a complete record be provided to an applicant in review proceedings," added Outa.
According to the non-profit civil action organisation, in June last year, Nersa provided a heavily redacted record without having made any agreement with Outa about this, and without having asked the court for condonation to deviate from the rules on the provision of documents.
"In December, Outa filed a notice calling for Nersa to produce the full record in terms of the court rules, but it failed to comply, so Outa brought the application to compel," said Outa.
The Star