GOVT TO STOP TRAVELLING ALLOWANCES

MBABANE – The gravy train is coming to a screeching halt as government intends to stop the ‘cash cow’ for civil servants.

This is because two government ministries are working towards combating corruption in the monetary resources of the State that are usually awarded to civil servants travelling abroad.
The civil servants who travel abroad on work-related assignments get lucrative financial benefits in terms of per diem. Per diem is explained by Wikipedia as a specific amount of money an organisation gives an individual, often an employee, per day to cover living expenses when travelling for work. The corruption is in those civil servants who travel abroad who then alter their reserved accommodation for far less cheap places in order to pocket the difference. It has been widely reported that some officials were globetrotting such that they spent minimal time in the office due to the cash benefits brought by the international trips.

Spending

Such complaints were even levelled against members of Cabinet. This happened during the tenure of the 10th Parliament, wherein the then Minister of Health, Sibongile Simelane, was said to be spending most of her time abroad while her ministry was crumbling. To deal with such grievances, two ministries; that of Finance and Public Service, have initiated a plan to curb the cashing in on per diem in an effort to minimise corruption and ‘cash for trips’ schemes. On this, the Minister of Public Service, Christian Ntshangase, said the idea was still being discussed; following which he shall present a Cabinet Paper to Cabinet. “Once that proposal is adopted, a new circular on external travel will be issued by the Ministry of Public Service,” Ntshangase said.

Also, the Ministry of Finance Communications Officer Setsabile Dlamini, said the ministry was still working on the issue of per diem. She said it was still early to stipulate when it would be completed; however, government was doing all possible to address the issue. Meanwhile, despite the Kingdom of Eswatini’s economy being relatively small compared to most countries in the world, its per diem rate, however, is quite high.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: