PAC ORDERS ICT OFFICIALS TO LEAVE PARLIAMENT

LOBAMBA – It was a day they will want to quickly forget. 

The Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) came under fire in Parliament yesterday when they made their appearance before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to give answers on the recommendations that were made by the committee on the findings of the Auditor General (AG). 

Led by Principal Secretary Maxwell Masuku, the ministry representatives were slammed for failing to give conclusive responses when members of the PAC demanded answers on the recommendations they made on the AG’s report on government accounts for the financial year ended March 31, 2018.

Responses

 In fact, the ministry was ordered by the PAC to leave Parliament and go prepare irrefutable responses as their submissions were not convincing and they spoke volumes about laxity and disorganisation at the ministry. 

One of the recommendations was that the controlling officer at the ministry was urged to quarterly update the committee on the progress of the investigations after the AG reported that 20 executive desks, amounting to E219 600 were purchased from PSD Investments for the Manzini Library. 

However, during a physical verification, it was discovered that only four desks were delivered at the Manzini Library instead of 20. He further noted that the delivery note was signed to acknowledge the delivery yet the furniture was partly delivered resulting in furniture amounting to E95 680 missing and untraceable. This transpired back in 2014. 

When ordered to give a response on the issue, National Library Director Jabu Hlophe said the matter had gone to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) for investigation and their feedback was that there should be internal investigations because they (ACC) could not trace the original batch nor could they prove that signatures were forged in the transaction document as speculated. This was communicated in a letter from the ACC which revealed that the matter was recommended for closure as further investigations were required. 

The PAC Chairman, Phila Buthelezi, who is also Matsanjeni North Member of Parliament (MP) asked Hlophe if the directors of the company delivering the desks acknowledged that they made an undersupply. She said she could not respond to that because when she arrived as director of National Libraries, the matter was already pending and there was a high possibility that it would make the list when the ministry makes another PAC appearance. 

Masuku, who serves as the Controlling Officer, was accused by the PAC of doing nothing on the matter after he failed to give an account of what he has done on the ACC recommendation that there should be an internal investigation on the matter. 

Recovering

Another PAC recommendation that formed part of the discussion was that the controlling officer was urged to continue recovering the funds and quarterly update the committee and also improve reconciliation after the AG noted an amount of E274 781 was reflected by the ministry as outstanding revenue for advertising fees yet Treasury records reflected that the outstanding fees were E1 197 355. 

Also, among the payments made, fees amounting to E588 765 were reflected as paid through the Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) system but there was no proof that these funds were deposited into government’s account. 

The controlling officer reported that his ministry was actively recovering the outstanding revenue and a balance of E60 954 was currently outstanding from the initial amount of E274 781.  

This is money owed by a South African media company for advertising purposes. Acting Principal Accountant in the ministry Mkhululi Makhubu said they contacted the company telephonically seeking for proof of payment to clear the debt which the company said they would do but there hasn’t been any feedback. He said they would write a letter to remind them of their assurance and if they don’t get feedback, they would take further action on the matter.

Mtfongwaneni MP Roy Fanourokis said it was clear that the ministry was not interested in recovering government’s money yet the latter had obvious financial challenges.  “It takes you a whole year to write a letter demanding the money when government is going through financial challenges. Maybe you should pay back the money through your salaries because obviously you are not interested in recovering the government money,” he said. 

It was suggested that the ministry should come back on Saturday with conclusive responses not the sluggishness they displayed yesterday.

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