Times Of Swaziland: POLICE SLAPPED WITH E107M  WATER, ELECTRICITY BILLS

POLICE SLAPPED WITH E107M  WATER, ELECTRICITY BILLS
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Mfanukhona Nkambule on 17/11/2024 16:58:00


MBABANE – The Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) has been slapped with water
and electricity bill amounting to E107.17 million.
However, REPS argues that the huge water bill was caused by a water pipe
leakage. Auditor General (AG) Timothy Matsebula had queried the exorbitant
expenditure of water and electricity bills, prompting the House of Assembly’s
Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to investigate the matter. This is contained in
the PAC’s recommendations on the AG’s Financial Audit reports on government
accounts of the financial years ended on March 31, 2022 and 2023. The AG
reported that the police service incurred  exorbitant  expenditure  in  respect 
of  water  and electricity  amounting  to  E107 174 051.16  under  the 
responsibility  Centre  1101 - Headquarters,  in  the  financial  year  ended
March 31, 2023.
According to the AG, the water expenditure amounted to E66 267 377.72 and
electricity bill was E40 906 673.44. Responding to the issue of expenditure, the
PAC reports that the controlling officer, being the office of the National
Commissioner (NatCom) of Police attributed the over expenditure on the water
bill to pipe leakages. The current NatCom is Vusi Manoma Masango. The office of
the NatCom said the pipes were old and worn out, while the high electricity bill
was due to high consumption.
In order to address the issue, police told the PAC that plumbers have been
engaged to fix the leaking pipes and a borehole will be used to supply water to
all the Matsapha Police camps and the Police Academy. Regarding the electricity,
they said they had started a programme of introducing separate meters in the
police quarters, which will be paid for by the officers occupying those houses. 
In its recommendations, the PAC resolved to defer the matter pending a site
visit to the police stations and camps to verify the veracity of the controlling
officer’s response.
On another note, the AG reported that there were significant unappropriated
excess expenditures amounting to E62 337 528.04 incurred by the police service
in the financial year ended on March 31, 2023. This comprises unappropriated 
excess  expenditure  on CTA  vehicle charges amounting to E6 557 492.65 under
the Traffic Section and unappropriated excess expenditure on personnel  costs 
amounting  to  E55,774,628.20  under  various  responsibility centres;
unappropriated excess expenditure on travel, transport and communication
amounting to  E4 379.90;  and  unappropriated excess expenditure on professional
and  special services amounting to E1 027.29.
The matter is still under Parliament discussion.