Times Of Swaziland: PAC RESERVES FRIDAY FOR EMBATTLED CTA BOSS

PAC RESERVES FRIDAY FOR EMBATTLED CTA BOSS
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BY SIBONGILE SUKATI on 30/09/2020 00:55:00


MBABANE – The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has cleared its Friday calendar
and reserved it specifically for embattled CTA’s General Transport Manager
Washington Khumalo.
According to the schedule released by the PAC, Khumalo is expected to give
feedback on all the anomalies regarding charges for repair costs of government
vehicles.
For the past month, during the sittings of the PAC, all ministries who appeared
before the committee raised concerns that they were made to pay for vehicles
which were sometimes reported to have been in car accidents, yet that was not
the case.
In some instances, for example, under the Ministry of Defence and National
Security, one vehicle S048 was reported to have gone for panel beating on
December 17, 2019 at a cost of E39 431.60.
Cost
Interestingly, five days later, on December 22, 2019, the same vehicle was
reported to have once again been taken for panel beating at a similar cost.
This led to the PAC coming to the conclusion that some of the bills were
duplicated for some reason by officers at the Central Transport Administration.
The auditor general, in his compliance report, further noted that the
unrecovered costs for accident-damaged government vehicles by government
officers and other parties amounted to over E48.3 million.
However, most ministries denied that most of their vehicles had been involved in
accidents as they were recorded at the CTA and disputed some of the bills
forwarded to them.
In most instances, when the PAC asked the GTM what had happened to a specific
vehicle, he would ask to be given time to go and investigate before giving
feedback.
The PAC, through its Chairperson Matsanjeni North Member of Parliament (MP)
Phila Buthelezi, said this was the reason that they had set aside the whole day
to deal with the CTA/GTM issues.
On Friday, the PAC is also expected to meet with the Ministry of Public Works
and Transport, which is the parent ministry for the CTA and the accountant
general ( AG) to thrash out the formula for calculating CTA charges.
Khumalo is also expected to give updates on PAC recommendations and other audit
queries.
“The CTA GTM is also expected to give feedback on all the anomalies regarding
the changing of number plates on the secretary to Cabinet vehicle and the
recovery of ex-Anti Corruption Commissioner’s vehicle,” reads the agenda.
About three weeks ago, the PAC had instructed Khumalo, with the help from the
police, to go and recover the vehicle, a Mercedes Benz from South Africa where
it was said to be.
Other issue that were highlighted during the course of the PAC sittings was how
government paid E102 000 to repaint former Minister of Justice and
Constitutional Affairs Edgar Hillary’s brand new BMW.
Insolence
Meanwhile, last week Friday, Khumalo was temporarily locked up in Parliament
after the PAC stated that he was displaying insolence by refusing to respond to
questions posed and instead firing back a question to the PAC.
Khumalo is already under fire from his parent ministry where he was slapped with
a charge of insubordination.
Last week, the GTM was even forced to drive himself to the Lobamba Police
Station where he had even contacted his attorney, Noncedo Ndlangamandla, but it
was discovered that no charges had been laid against him by Parliament.
When MP Buthelezi asked Khumalo to briefly excuse them from sitting the former
had submitted in vernacular that ‘mvaleleni sekake ayomphompa’ loosely
translated to mean ‘go lock him up so he can go and cool off’.