EX-HOUSING PS SIGNED TENDERS UNLAWFULLY - BENNETT

LOBAMBA – Businessman Walter Bennett claims that the recently retired principal secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development signed tenders during his last six months in office, which was against the law.

The former senator was speaking yesterday during the Royal Science and Technology Park (RSTP) Bill stakeholders submissions to the Senate Portfolio Committee in Senate. Bennett, who is also a Board member at RSTP, said government ministries and parastatals were not utilising RSTP to its full capacity. He said this while referring to the qualifications that were listed in Clause 6 (3) of the Bill, which distinguish the grounds of appointing members of the RSTP Board.

Distinguishable

The Bill states that the members of the Board should be appointed on distinguishable knowledge and achievements, experience in technological innovation or management. The former senator said the appointment of the Board members should not only be based on qualifications as even people who were not intellectuals would be needed to serve on the Board. He said it had been proven that it was mostly intellectuals who stole from government as they used their skills to squander funds. The former senator said it had been communicated a countless number of times that everything that had to do with technology within government should be conducted by RSTP. He said even the directive from the King about the formation of RSTP communicated the same message.

“But in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Prince Simelane went against the King’s directive. Last year, he said local government elections were suspended due to funds constrains. The second time, RSTP was asked how much it would charge if it was to be put in charge of local government elections. They gave a response, together with those who were in charge of the elections in 2018 and 2017. RSTP said it could charge E744 000.80, while another said they could  charge E1.1 million. However, Prince Simelane, together with his principal secretary, gave another company the tender for E12 million,” he said. Bennett said the people who made this blunder were intellectuals, who were viewed capable of making sound decisions. He said the King issued a directive that stated clearly that all Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services should be spearheaded by RSTP, but the ministry defied this.

He went on to state that all this happened while the former PS was left with less than three months to leave (office). He cited that the law under the Ministry of Public Service, which he said clearly stipulated that ‘if an employee in his position is left with less than six months in office, he/she is not expected to be signing any contracts’. “The law says if you are left with six months or less you should not be signing any contracts but he signed in February and left in May. It is painful that this blunder is created by people and then the entire Tinkhundla System is blamed, hence you have others calling for reforms,” he said. The businessman opined that this was unfair because these were public funds that were misused by certain individuals. For that reason, he said there was a need to change the clause so that people were not marginalised. In response, Senator Lekinah Magagula, who is the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee, informed Bennett that even senators dwelled on the issue of the qualifications and also suggested that the Board members should be blended.

Impossible

Still on Board members, Bennett highlighted that the Bill further stated that the PS in the Ministry of Finance should also be a member of the RSTP Board. He said from where he was standing, the PS was serving on a lot of Boards and it was impossible that she would carry out her duties accordingly and be present in every Board meeting. “PS sewabasidziya senja nangabe uyasati,” he said. According to some traditionalists, this adage can be likened to something that does not exist or not there and in the sense of the PS, it would mean it is unlikely for her to be present in all the Board meetings. Bennett said due to the many duties and expectations to serve on different public enterprise Boards, it was impossible for the PS to be present in all of them. For that reason, he said the clause needed to be reviewed as well.

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