CONFLICT OF INTEREST IN HOME AFFAIRS TENDER PROBE – MPS

LOBAMBA – The manner in which the inquiry into the controversial tender awarded by the Ministry of Home Affairs will be conducted has been questioned by MPs.

Motshane MP Robert Magongo yesterday sought clarification regarding a recommendation that was made to the effect that a controversial tender, which was awarded by the Ministry of Home Affairs, should be investigated. This is the Design, Development and Implementation of a Modernised Integrated System Tender No.22 of 2021/2022. It should be noted that in the report of the ministry’s portfolio committee on the ministry’s annual performance for 2021, it was noted that there were suspicions that a tendering process was handled irregularly.
The MP said he heard that the same portfolio committee would be responsible for conducting the investigation of the tender. Magongo said such news worried him as it was initially advised that it should not be the portfolio committee that should conduct the investigation, but instead a select committee should do the job.

Recommendation

“What is happening now is a conflict of interest because the portfolio committee is the one that made the recommendation that the tender be investigated. It cannot then be the one that conducts the investigation,” Magongo stated. He requested that the Office of the Speaker should comply with the recommendation that was given by the attorney general (AG) that a select committee should take over the task. “The investigation is misdirected because even the Ministry of Home Affairs should not be involved because the issue of tenders lies with the Ministry of Finance. I request that this issue be sorted out,” he said.

Deputy Speaker and Mhlangatane MP Madala Mhlanga, who was on the Speaker’s chair yesterday, requested to address the issue. He said he was doing so in his capacity as a presiding officer and not as the chairperson of the Ministry of Home Affairs Portfolio Committee. Mahlanga said if there were irregularities with the investigation, Magongo should feel free to report, so that it could be corrected. “A motion can still be moved to order that the decision to give the responsibility to the portfolio committee be rescinded. I will check with the Office of the Speaker, especially to ascertain if there was advice given by the Office of the AG that a select committee should do the job,” said Mhlanga. Kwaluseni MP Mabhanisi Dlamini also stood up to support Magongo, saying it would be wrong for the Ministry of Home Affairs Portfolio Committee to probe the tender.

Overtaken

However, Dlamini was stopped by Mhlanga who said the submission had now been overtaken by events as he (Mhlanga) had responded to Magongo. Mhlanga also advised that MPs should cite the Standing Order they were using whenever they stood up on a point of order. Meanwhile, Nhlambeni MP Manzi Zwane submitted that he was disappointed as the deputy Speaker had, during the start of the sitting, informed the House that there were no announcements. It is the procedure that after leading the MPs in prayer at the start of a sitting, the Speaker, or his deputy if he is absent, then reads out announcements. Yesterday, Mhlanga, who was on the Speaker’s chair, informed the MPs that there were no announcements.
MP Zwane said he was disappointed to hear Mhlanga say that. He mentioned that he expected feedback on a pending issue regarding the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA).

According to Zwane, MPs had been promised that they would be given feedback on some concerns they had regarding the CPA. “We were promised that we will get answers on when the CPA would meet so I am shocked today that you are saying there are no announcements. There was also a submission to the effect that there was something that the Office of the Speaker had not done properly and that we needed a caucus in order to resolve such issues,” said Zwane. He mentioned that the Office of the Speaker was supposed to plan for the caucus and give feedback to the MPs. In response, Mhlanga advised the MPs to always use the right channels whenever they had concerns. He mentioned that there were bodies such as sessional committees, which were there to address concerns and provide clarity to MPs. He said the issue of the caucus lied with the sessional committee and that the Speaker had no control over that. “The Speaker cannot just wake up and say today he feels like calling a caucus,” he said.

He also mentioned that there were also Standing Orders in place which allowed MPs to move motions whenever they did not get satisfactory answers on issues or clarifications they requested. The statement by Mhlanga seemingly touched Lobamba Lomdzala MP Marwick Khumalo, who submitted the emphasis on Standing Orders and procedural practices concerned. Khumalo said since Mhlanga had said that Parliament was conducted through following procedural practices, he wondered if such was the true picture.

Opposite

“I wish what you have said is the path we have been using all along. Today we open and follow the Standing Orders like you say, but tomorrow you will not be on that seat and we will do the opposite. The practice should not be followed only when you are on that seat but all the time. It is a good practice but it’s not what usually happens once the substantive Speaker is here,” said Khumalo. He mentioned that the wisest thing to do would be for the Speaker and Mhlanga to sit down and work on the uniform arrangement in the House. “Let us all be inducted in this kind of practice because right now some members do not even have the Standing Orders, while others they have but do not come with them. That is the wrong practice that we have been accustomed to yet what you are saying is that we need to cite the Standing Orders as it is the correct thing to do,” submitted Khumalo.

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