RSTP CEO’S CONTRACT NOT RENEWED 1YR LATER

LOBAMBA – The Ministry of ICT has been given three months to sort out the issue of RSTP Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Vumile Dlamini’s contract that expired a year ago.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was highly concerned that the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) had allowed the Royal Science and Technology Park (RSTP) CEO to hold the position without an instrument that speaks to that. The issue of the contract came to the fore when the ministry was responding to a query about the non-deduction of fringe benefits from the use of company vehicles for both business and personal activities by the executive management.

It emerged that the only executive member that the RSTP had was the CEO, who was allocated a car from the pool of motor vehicles belonging to the institution, dedicated to his office for official business. However, the RSTP’s Finance Manager, Lwandle Simelane, stated that the reason there were no fringe benefits paid was because the CEO was not paid a car allowance, hence he received no benefit.  It was when Simelane told the committee that they were waiting for a new contract for the CEO which would state that he was entitled to a car allowance, that the members picked that he was currently without one.

The committee’s Chairman, MP Musa Kunene, wondered how the CEO was remunerated given that there was no instrument from the ministry giving him the green light to occupy the position. He submitted that the ministry should have attended to the issue of the contract three months before it expired, because it could happen that he was now remunerated unlawfully. Nhlambeni Member of Parliament (MP) Manzi Zwane shared that this was a cause for concern as they had witnessed in other entities where a CEO was hired when there was an acting person holding the same position.

However, RSTP Research Director Dr Rejoice Maseko explained that the matter had been resolved as the renewing of the contract had been presented to the ministry’s Principal Secretary Phesheya Dube, who would take it to the minister before being presented to SCOPE. Committee Vice Chairman and Madlangempisi MP Sibusiso ‘Scorpion’ Nxumalo, who was presiding yesterday, submitted that the committee frowned on the acting basis that the CEO was currently under as this was leading to leakages within the entity. “So the CEO is being remunerated on a rate that he is not even aware whether it is lawful or not,” wondered Nxumalo. He gave the institution three months to solve the issue of the contract for the CEO and give feedback to the committee on the progress.

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