Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) leader McHenry Venaani has expressed disappointment in the ability of the Office of the Ombudsman in dealing with high profile corruption cases. Venaani’s frustrations stem from a legal opinion that PDM sought from Ombudsman John Walters about alleged corruption at the Ministry of Defence and its subsidiary company, August 26. The PDM president, at a press conference here Wednesday said his party wanted to know if August 26 can be audited, to lay bare the facts behind a public company that has never accounted for public money. Venaani said even though the Ombudsman agreed with PDM from the onset that August 26 must be audited he has not yet written back to explain his findings or opinion. Contacted for comment, Walters rebutted Venaani’s allegations saying: “These allegations are an attack on my integrity, the effectiveness of the office and the independence of the Ombudsman.” Walters went at length to explain how he reached out to PDM’s Nico Smit to provide him with his findings as the complainant in the matter, via phone and hand-delivering the response letter to the PDM office at the National Assembly on 16 July. “I remember him calling, it’s true, but I never got that letter,” Smit said. Walters recommended that August 26 and all other parastatals that have been failing to publish their annual reports and audited financial statements should do so without delay. The seriousness of the matter necessitated the Ombudsman to also send the same report to Public Enterprises Minister Leon Jooste on 10 July 2020. “I asked him to comply with my recommendation…needless to say, like on many occasions, from so many quarters of Government, I did receive neither acknowledgement of receipt nor a response,” he said. It would still fall on deaf ears, Walters said. Realising that his report was not being treated with the seriousness it warranted, on 30 September, he submitted the report to the National Assembly in terms of Section 6 (1) of the Ombudsman Act. The report was allegedly then referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts. -NAMPA