MPS WANT PSS ARRESTED, SAY FINES A JOKE!

LOBAMBA – Arrest them!

Members of Parliament have called for an instrument that will allow for principal secretaries (PSs), referred to as controlling officers, to be arrested whenever there were issues of overspending and failure to apply proper financial control measures in their various ministries. This happened at the House of Assembly yesterday during the adoption of the Report of the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) Recommendations on the Auditor General’s Report on government accounts for the financial years ended on March 31, 2017 and March 31, 2018.

Performance

During the debate of the report, the MPs made it known that the meagre E400 fine which controlling officers and senior government officials were made to pay for overspending and other financial irregularities in their ministries was too little when compared to the amounts of money that were overspent or signed for without following procedures. In the PAC Report, almost all the PSs have been found guilty of overspending on CTA charges and not following proper accounting procedures. The MPs said the time had come for the enactment of the Privileges Act which they believed would allow for controlling officers to be taken to task, instead of being fined the meagre E400.

In their submissions, they said it did not make sense to fine a controlling officer E400 when they had overspent by over E25 million which was the case in one of the ministries as per the findings made by the PAC. Madlangempisi MP, Sibusiso ‘Scorpion’ Nxumalo mentioned that the PAC Report should be used by MPs as an instrument to set an example and further save the country from collapsing. Nxumalo said the report should be used to move as many motions as possible in relation to the findings and recommendations made by the PAC. “It is clear that a deterrent for MPs and senior government officials is long overdue and with this report, we have a chance to help our country.

Procedure

Let us push for all senior government officials found guilty of overspending to be arrested. By arresting one, we would have sent a warning that we are indeed serious about ending this catastrophe of overspending and not following accounting procedures,” Nxumalo said.

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