PARASTATAL REPORTED TO ACC

MBABANE – A parastatal has been reported to the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) for exhibiting corrupt practices in its procurement processes.

This was disclosed by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of  ESPPRA, Madoda Mngomezulu, during the launch of the Eswatini Procurement Indaba, which was attended by the Category A parastatal Board members and the Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg, among many stakeholders. Mngomezulu said this during the question and answer session where he was called upon to expand on the insinuations that the public procurement was riddled with corruption. He said elements of corruption were there and his entity was doing all it possibly could to deal with them in partnership with Cabinet.

Reported

He said it was not just the parastatal that had been reported to the ACC, but a number of business entities that had dealings with government and or parastatals which were suspended as well for falsifying documents. The CEO said another supplier that dealt with one of the local governments was suspended for a year following an episode that was carried out in the media. The supplier, Mngomezulu said, had its licence suspended for a year. “The suspension has since been uplifted as the year lapsed in August,” he said. In the many corrupt practices that were highlighted by Mngomezulu, he said, another parastatal awarded a tender to another supplier but offered an order to a different supplier – who had not won the tender process.
This, he said, was a cause for concern as this exposed the lack of control measures, if a supplier that was not on the database could be awarded a tender and further supply goods and even be paid for the work without any red flags being noted.

“We have since taken this to the internal auditor and with the upcoming indaba, we hope modernising the procurement process will uproot such. One tenderer forged every document that had to be supplied until he was paid.” The CEO said the modernised procurement system – readiness would assist in such and had already passed an assessment by the World Bank. He said this programme, that would make procurement more efficient and saving government millions needed funding in excess of E100 million.

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