PAC FINES: PSS TO PART WITH E25 000

MBABANE – Principal secretaries and controlling officers will be digging deep into their personal pockets to pay fines imposed by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

About E25 000 will be paid by the PSs once the PAC Report 2019 is debated and adopted by the House of Assembly, which is expected to take place this afternoon.

A majority of the controlling officers have all been fined a minimum of E400 for overexpenditure on the Central Transport Administration (CTA) charges. One of the controlling officers who will pay a high fine for this is National Commissioner of Police William Dlamini, who will part with E1 200 on two counts of overspending on CTA charges and an additional E400 for spending E25 million on drugs and professional services without any budget provision.

Newly-appointed PSs will also find themselves inheriting fines which were left behind by their predecessors.   One such unlucky person is the PS in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Nhlanhla Nxumalo, who replaced deployed former PS Anthony Masilela.

Nxumalo now finds himself having to fork out about E2 400 in various fines including E400 for overexpenditure under CTA charges.
In its recommendations, the PAC urged the controlling officer to recover the money from then civil servants who were not allowed to claim overtime. 

During his appearance before the PAC, Masilela had justified the overtime allowances by saying he had a lot of officers in the ministry who performed duties that attracted the allowances such as Immigration, issuance of certificates and attending to refugees needs.
However, the PAC urged him to recover the money from those who did not have the authority to work overtime.
He was further fined E400 for this anomaly.

“The controlling officer is urged to produce the authority, failing which he should recover the money from the officers and is fined E200 for allowing the anomaly to happen,” reads the report.
The Home Affairs ministry was also fined E200 for the anomaly of having no storekeeper.

The controlling officer was fined a further E400 for material which went missing during the King’s Birthday celebration in 2015.
He was further urged to upscale controls in the ministry and continue searching for the untraceable material and quarterly update the committee on progress.  There was also a fine for the PS for exceeding of cellphone allowances at E400. 

The controlling officer submitted that the over- expenditure on CTA charges was due to an inadequate budget to cover all the ministry’s activities. Regarding the travelling expenses, he stated that it was unavoidable because government used the same travel agent.

Expected

Another PS who will pay about E2 000 is Bheki Bhembe under the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development. Bhembe replaced PS Bertram Stewart, who is now PS in the Ministry of Education and Training.  Bhembe is expected to be fined E400 for failure to maintain the records which should be payable within seven days after adoption of the report by the House.

The PS will also be fined E400 for failure to ensure controls over which the auditor general reported that uniform worth E646 961.88, which was purchased for the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Summit held in the 2016/17 financial year, was not properly accounted for.  The uniform included ladies’ jackets, skirts and shirts, men’s suits and traditional attire.

The controlling officer then had conceded that the process seemed to have not been properly managed.  He said there was a National Organising Committee comprising certain PSs from different ministries who were responsible for the event and the money for the supplies was often transferred directly to the suppliers. He was further fined E400 for overspending on CTA charges.

Another fine of E400 was for transferring the funds without authority. 
Clerk to Parliament Ndvuna Dlamini has also been fined E400 for overspending on CTA charges after he alleged that he had no control over the vehicles and whenever he attempted to control them, he was threatened by the former presiding officers who often bullied him and told him that they did not report to him and could, therefore, do as they pleased with the vehicles, yet they were fuelled by Parliament.

The same applied to PS Victor Nxumalo at the Prime Minister’s Office who was fined for overspending on fuel charges.  PS in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Joel Nhleko was fined E400 for failing to recover funds for officers in the foreign missions and for failure to utilise funds for their intended purposes.

Retired PS Andreas Mathabela has also left a fine of E400 for misleading the PAC after he submitted that an officer under the Ministry of Defence and National Security had allegedly dropped out due to pressure from her workplace as she was recalled by her superior officers to undertake a certain unspecified assignment.

He, therefore, requested that the officer should not be made to pay back the money as the situation she found herself in was beyond her control.
However, evidence presented before the committee by the Ministry of Public Service sharply contradicted the controlling officer’s assertions.
It was revealed that the officer voluntarily wrote a letter to the Ministry of Public Service asking to drop out of school due to the fact that she was not coping with her studies.

PS in the Ministry of Tinkhundla Administration and Development Nonhlanhla Dlamini was urged to be more vigilant in the control of public funds and avoid a repeat of erroneous transfers.
She was further fined E400 for overexpenditure on CTA charges and an additional E400 for failure to follow government procurement procedures.

PS in the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade Siboniso Nkambule will also be fined E400 for allowing the payment of money amounting to E5 million yet it did not have a client engineer’s signature and was warned not to repeat it in future.
HE was further fined E400 for failure to exercise due diligence.

Urged

“The controlling officer is urged to follow up the matter with the office of the attorney General and quarterly update the committee on progress. He is further fined E400 for allowing this anomaly to occur. The controlling officer is fined E400 which is payable within seven days after adoption of this report by the House, for overspending on CTA charges.

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