Times Of Swaziland: PS’S EMOJI ON OFFICIAL GOVT DOCUMENT INFURIATES CTA BOSS

PS’S EMOJI ON OFFICIAL GOVT DOCUMENT INFURIATES CTA BOSS
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BY MBONGENI NDLELA on 20/09/2020 06:07:00


MBABANE –The battle of emojis!
According to the Oxford dictionary, an emoji is a small digital image or icon
used to express an idea, emotion, etc. They exist in various genres, including
facial expressions, common objects, places and types of weather, and animals.
Imagine finding an emoji or cartoon in an official government document. Last
week, an important government document (memorandum) was found to have been
inscribed with an emoji. The document dated August 13, 2020, which has been seen
by the Times SUNDAY, is a memo that was directed to all principal secretaries
and heads of department. It was titled ‘suspension of physical visits to the
department of human resource development due to COVID-19 pandemic’.
It has been gathered that a copy of the memorandum was forwarded to the Central
Transport Administration (CTA) with an emoji having been inscribed on it.
Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Public Works and Transport Khangeziwe
Mabuza has acknowledged the emoji and promised to send more of such.
This is said to have irked CTA General Transport Manager Washington Khumalo, who
on Friday, wondered why the ministry allowed such an emoji.
“Who can give seriousness to a document that has an emoji? Look at the level
of the person who drew the emoji. She is not taking things seriously,” argued
Khumalo.
He said he was shocked that there were now claims that the emoji was inscribed
by a CTA officer.
“As old as I am, how I can draw an emoji on a government document? This is why
I told Parliament that I am being made a scapegoat. But the truth will soon come
out,” he said.
cartoon characters
Last week, Naniki Mnisi, the Under Secretary in the Ministry, told the Public
Accounts Committee (PAC)   that she got cartoon characters and emojis after
writing a formal letter to Khumalo. Mnisi explained that in one of the letters
she wrote to CTA, she was requesting Khumalo to give the green light to the
appointment of one of the ministry’s employees.
She said she got more than what she bargained for as Khumalo wrote his response
in the same letter that she sent to him.
Meanwhile, PS Mabuza said she would continue putting Emojis on all the
corresponding letters between the CTA and her office. This, according to the PS,
would happen until the administration follows procedure by attaching a minute
note.
She said procedurally, all government documents come with a minute note, which
is used by the receiver to write responses of the document. For the CTA,
however, that was not the case.
Responding to the Times SUNDAY about the emoji, the PS said: “Nice, I want
more of such. Khumalo should just acknowledge he is learning from his PS and
that should be the spirit in the execution of duty in general.”
The PS stated that Khumalo should not focus on the issue of the emoji, but
rather the audit queries.
“I need him to work and dedicate himself on what is important,” she said.
Asked about  a way forward regarding the bitter relationship between the CTA and
the ministry, the PS said CTA staff no longer submitted reports nor did they
submit any kind of work.
The bitter relationship has left many in the CTA questioning whether the
institution still exists.
The 356 employees at the CTA, who are alleged to be paid for doing nothing at
the moment, are wondering what will happen to their future.
Trading account
Firstly, government, after an audit query regarding money spent by the
administration, decided to close the trading account.
However, CTA management, has told this publication that the administration does
not have anything called a trading account.
The management wondered what trading account government was referring to. In
fact, the management argued that their funds were governed through the Central
Transport Board Fund regulations of 1975, which were subsequently repealed by
the Finance Management and Audit Act.18 of 1967. Since then, CTA has not had any
budget allocation or been included in the national budget, even though according
to management, had been submitting financial reports and statement to the Public
Enterprise Unit in the Ministry of Finance.
The GTM wondered why would then the auditor general’s office note an
over-expenditure when in essence, the administration, legitimately, does not
have a fixed budget but relied on recurrent expenditure.
Secondly, in April, government decided to take charge of the administration’s
bowsers and that is when the issue of petrol shortage for government fleet
started to show. A bowser is a fuel tanker used to either deliver or store fuel.
There are a total of 215 bowsers that were being managed by CTA and of these, 11
have been decommissioned. These bowsers service the entire government fleet,
which consists of about 3 467 vehicles.
fleet maintenance
Thirdly, government removed the powers of fleet maintenance and the purchasing
of vehicles from the administration.
This effectively means damaged vehicles are no longer taken for fixing or
attended to because the responsible department has been sidelined. Mechanics are
receiving salaries while at home. In fact, several government cars due for
service are parked, while others have punctured tyres that have not been
replaced.
Again, the rental of private vehicles has also been removed from the
administration. All these duties were redirected to the ministry, including that
of fuel management.
Items for common use, including batteries, tyres, lubricants, print stationery
and vehicle hire, are part of the tenders that the principal has allegedly
refused to approve.
This effectively means the administration is currently non-functional; it no
longer performs its duties.
The re-fuelling of government vehicles is no longer conducted by the
administration. Government has taken over this role and this has resulted in the
ongoing shortage of fuel.
In response to these concerns, the PS said: “I don’t know where CTA staff
has disappeared to. We want them to work because we are paying salaries yet we
are no longer receiving reports about daily duties. I want them on board,” she
said.
She said the reason she objected to some of the tenders that were submitted by
CTA was that she wanted them to be listed under Head 53. She said this was
because government had decided to close the administration’s trading account
due to irregularities on spending.
“They know what to do and once they follow orders, we will work harmoniously
with them. I need CTA to be functional,” she said.