THE joint venture between state-owned arms manufacturer Denel and the Gupta-associated company VR Laser has not been approved by Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown or by the Treasury and is, therefore, not legal under the Public Finance Management Act.Denel and VR Laser formed Denel Asia last month and registered the company in Hong Kong. But before any state-owned company can enter a joint venture or partnership it must complete a section 54 application under the Public Finance Management Act and obtain the consent of the executive authority.Though Denel took the preceding step under section 51 of the act and requested pre-qualification to explore the arrangement, it never secured permission to form the company.Ms Brown said on Monday that she had set a number of conditions prior to giving her approval. These included that a cost-benefit analysis and a due diligence of the company be performed before approval.These conditions have still not been met.Ms Brown read about the lau...
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