MPS PASS OIL RESERVE BILL

LOBAMBA – Under a cloud of controversy Members of Parliament yesterday passed into an Act the Strategic Oil Reserve Project Guarantee Bill, of 2014.

This comes a week after the MPs had rejected the guarantee Bill to which government will pay not more than E885 972 000 to Kantey and Templer Proprietory Limited (Swaziland) upon completion of the oil reserve facility which is expected to be constructed at Phuzumoya.

The MPs adopted the Bill with amendments after being locked in a caucus (private meeting) for almost three and a half hours yesterday afternoon.
The Bill was the only item on the order paper yet the MPs and the media had previously been told that they would also adopt other reports such as the Ministerial Statement on Ebola, adopt the report on the shortage of doctors in the country and the report finding Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Sibusiso Shongwe guilty of contempt of Parliament.

“However, we then received another SMS informing us that the only business on the order paper would be the oil facility project Bill and nothing else,” said an MP.
The Bill was also brought to the House with a certificate of urgency by the Minister of Finance, Martin Dlamini. 
The MPs had tossed out the Bill after concerns had been raised about why the tender for the construction of the about E900m facility had not been an open one and they also questioned the particulars of Kantey and Templer Proprietory Limited (Swaziland).

The MPs had said all government ministries were expected to adhere to the provisions of the Procurement Act without first resorting to the single provision in the same Act even when the requirements of same are not met by the project at hand as it was in this present case.

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