The Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Tuesday it would lay criminal charges against Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) group CEO Lucky Montana for fraud and corruption. The DA also said that the Special Investigative Unit (SIU) should conduct a forensic investigation into the misconduct at Prasa in order to determine the criminal liability of those involved in the abuse of public funds and prosecute them accordingly.The abuse of public funds uncovered by the Public Protector‚ Advocate Thuli Madonsela‚ at Prasa “poses a significant threat to the parastatal‚ which has an important mandate to transport millions of South Africans to work and school on a daily basis”‚ a statement by the DA said.“Prasa‚ under the leadership of group CEO Lucky Montana knowingly contravened the Public Finance Management Act and the Supply Chain Management Policies of Prasa‚ and has acted illicitly and selfishly at the taxpayers’ expense.“The DA will therefore pursue a number of avenues to ensure that the remedial actions taken by the public protector are enforced‚ the misappropriated funds are recuperated‚ and that criminal charges against the appropriate authorities are investigated.“The scathing findings by the public protector of the improper awarding‚ extension and appointment of tender contracts to companies and connected individuals by the group CEO and the Prasa board must be condemned in the strongest terms as this amounted to over R355-million.“Even worse than this is the R1.3-billion loss – at the taxpayers’ expense - because of a failure by Prasa to execute a foreign currency hedge.”Further to this‚ the official opposition party said‚ Prasa had overspent on its budget by R523-million for the 2009/2010 financial year‚ accumulated losses of R4-billion in the 2010/2011 financial year‚ and accumulated losses of R1-billion for the 2014/2015 financial year‚ and the recent questionable R3.5-billion tender awarded to a Spanish company‚ Vossloh Espana‚ the DA said.The DA said it would table questions in Parliament asking how the Minister of Transport‚ Dipuo Peters‚ would ensure that the remedial action taken by the public protector was enforced. It would also ask what plans the minister had in place to turn around Prasa in order to fulfil its mandate to provide the South African public with safe‚ affordable and reliable rail services.The chairperson of the portfolio committee on transport‚ Dikeledi Magadzi‚ would be requested to summon the Prasa board to appear before committee to advise them on how they would go about implementing remedial action.“The portfolio committee must accelerate the reform of Prasa‚ such as the public protector’s call to lower the R350-million threshold before the entity is required to embark on a competitive bidding process in the procurement process."This will go a long way in preventing the abuse of the Supply Chain Management Policies of Prasa and future procurement irregularities.”..