Times Of Swaziland: E326 220 SOS PRIMARY TEACHERS’ INCENTIVES SHOCK PAC

E326 220 SOS PRIMARY TEACHERS’ INCENTIVES SHOCK PAC
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BY DELISA THWALA on 10/11/2021 08:44:00


LOBAMBA – The Public Account Committee (PAC) discovered that Herman Gmeiner
(SOS) Primary School spent cash amounting to E326 220 incetivising teachers.
This is said to have happened in the financial year 2018. There was no
explanation of what was being paid for. According to the Auditor General’s
(AG) report, the payments done were fraudulent, and this was a violation of the
schools accounting regulations Section 13.0, which states that the head teacher
must record all expenditure incurred by the school and ensure there was a
supporting voucher for each item of expense. When probed to answer what the
money was spent on, the Head teacher, Linda Thwala, said some of the money was
paid to teachers at the school as incentives. Thwala said the money was sourced
from the school’s trips funds that had been left unused.
Shock
Much to the shock of the PAC, Thwala said the teachers were given incentives of
E1 000 each as a way of motivating them for their work. He further mentioned
that the remaining money that was paid in bulk was still in the bank. “The
reason teachers were given this money was because of their hard work during the
school trips,” said Thwala. PAC Chairperson, who is also Gege Member of
Parliament, (MP) Musa Kunene, asked Thwala what hard work had been done by the
teachers for them to receive money at the expense of parents. Kunene further
enquired if parents were told about the teachers’ incentives. “What did the
teachers do to deserve such money and were the parents told that their hard
earned money will be given to teachers who already earned a salary?” asked
Kunene.
MP Oneboy Zikalala echoed Kunene’s sentiments and said the school seemed to
have money and was not scared to spend it. Meanwhile, Ministry of Education and
Training Principal Secretary (PS) Bhekithemba Gama, said there was no regulation
in the ministry which stated that teachers were entitled to incentives. He said
it was not mandatory and they did not know about it. “I do not know why the
school is not adhering to the ministry’s regulations,” said Gama when
responding regarding to the SOS matter.
Another matter reported in the AG’s report was that the school did not have a
minute book, instead, they had the minutes typed out but were not detailed. It
was mentioned that the School Committee did not meet often, except for approval
of purchases only. The AG further noted that there were no minutes for annual
general meetings with parents, for presentation of financial statements and
budget for the next year. This was despite that the Constitution of the School
Committees, Article 7; Section 7.3.4 stipulates that the secretary shall record
minutes for all committee and parents’ meetings. Without the minutes, the
school does not have a record of resolutions made by the committee members and
parents.
In response, Thwala concurred that there was no minute book. He stated that
minutes were written on an exam pad, and later on typed. He denied that the
minutes were written specifically for the audit. He concurred that the School
Committee did not meet often, but denied that the Secretary and Chairperson
often met to sign cheques only. Another query by the PAC was that of irrelevant
attachments. The AG reported that there were payments attached to payment
vouchers as supporting documents that were for previous years.
The attachments amounted to E4 835 and this was said to be a violation of the
schools accounting regulations, Section 12.0, which states that the head of
school must take action to ensure that resources collected from parents for
educational purposes as a condition of attendance are expended and used
efficiently solely for that purpose. In response, Thwala acknowledged the
anomaly, stating that this happened because some companies were paid towards the
end of the year, but would only post invoices in the next year.
Attachments
His response did not however, sit well with the PAC chairperson, who asked why
the head teacher used wrong attachments. He further implored the school’s
Chairperson Motshane MP, Robert Magongo, to respond and shed light on the
matter, to which Magongo said he did not know anything. “I do not know
anything about this but all payment attachments that I know of and signed were
correct and not of previous years,” said Magongo.  Meanwhile, the PAC
Chairperson put the newly-appointed PS in the Ministry of Education and Training
Principal Secretary (Gama) on the spot.
MP Kunene called out Gama for failing to avail himself for the sitting and said
he should stop acting like he was doing the PAC a favour by gracing them with
his presence.Worth noting is that since his appointment, Gama had only been to
the PAC sittings once. “Please kindly talk to the PS, we are here to work and
not lazing around. There is a lot that needs him here but he has not been
present. Can I say that this is not a joke, we are here to work and no one is
doing anyone a favour,” lamented Kunene.
Wrong
He went on to state that the ministry was actually undermining their work as a
committee. “This is our job, we give it our all and we cannot have people
undermine us like this. It is wrong, totally wrong. Can the PS be here to do his
job,” said Kunene. His sentiments were echoed by Lobamba MP Allen Stewart, who
said it was disheartening to see people slack in their duties when they did
their utmost best to be always available for work. Stewart said they too had
other commitments but work came first.
Meanwhile, the PAC called Motshane MP Magongo to order for using underhand
tactics in an attempt to discredit the audit report and their work. Magongo had
complained that the committee members did not form a quorum, meaning they could
not continue with the sitting. MP Magongo is the Chairperson of Herman Gmeiner
Primary School Committee. This was refuted by the PAC chairperson, who insisted
that they formed a quorum and should continue with the sitting.
MP Magongo had further alleged that he had been receiving threats from PAC
Deputy Chairperson, MP Sibusiso ‘Scorpion’ Nxumalo and requested that in
order for justice to prevail, Nxumalo should excuse them.
“Can the vice chairperson please excuse us because if he stays, I do not think
there will be justice to what we are about to do here. He threatened me and said
I am needed and he wanted to deal with me,” said Magongo. Kunene indicated
that the vice chairperson was within his right to call Magongo as the committee
also subpoenaed him to appear before it. Committee Member MP Stewart called
Magongo to order for the first time and stated that he should not be allowed to
dictate terms to them.
Threaten
When responding to this, PAC Vice Chairperson, MP Nxumalo, said he did not
threaten Magongo but was merely doing his housekeeping duties. He said he was
well within his right to call and tell Magongo to avail himself before the PAC.
“I only requested him to appear before the committee, not as an MP but as
chairman of SOS. It is not good to have people of public office not being held
accountable. I actually warned him that if he does not come, I will put him in
jail,” said Nxumalo. Another Committee Member, MP Oneboy Zikalala, asked
Magongo to respect them and refrain from telling them how to do their work.
“Let us not entertain what is not on record, we are here to deal with audit
queries and he is here as the school committee chairperson,” he said.
However, Magongo directed MP Stewart to withdraw his statement that he
deliberately refused to appear before the committee. He indicated that he only
came to the hearing out of respect of the chairperson. He further mentioned that
he was not happy that the chairperson ran to the speaker to sign the subpoena
instead of signing it himself as the committee chairperson. “Ungibalekele lani
as the chairperson of the committee?” he asked. Kunene then directed Magongo
to withdraw his statement as it indicated that they were wasting time as he was
now casting doubt on the report as a whole.
He declined to comment further but revealed that he had evidence to support his
claims and if they insisted that he speaks, he would gladly do so. After being
requested on numerous occasions, he revealed that for the sake of progress, he
would withdraw his statement. MP Stewart did not take kindly to this and
revealed that what Magongo was doing was disrespectful to their work. “He
should not be allowed to use underhand tactics to discredit the work we are
doing here. “He should be called to order and not allowed to do this as it is
unfair,” he said. He added that if Magongo had issues with the audit team, he
should have addressed them with the ministry instead of making accusations that
were not supported by facts. Magongo did not stay for the whole sitting as he
indicated that he was not well and also had some matters he urgently needed to
address.