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ABOUT E2M TRANSFERRED TO CIVIL SERVANT’S CHILD ACCOUNT

11/09/2023 09:13:00 Mbongiseni Ndzimandze

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MBABANE – A female civil servant employed by the Ministry of Finance is being investigated by the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) after close to E2 million from government coffers was transferred to her child’s bank account.

The civil servant, who is based in Mbabane, under the Treasury Department, is alleged to have made the transactions on diverse occasions. She is reportedly based in the banking section of the department, which is responsible for making payments. Pending intense investigations which have been launched by the police, the child’s bank account, which it is suspected, was used as an instrumentality to commit a crime, has been frozen. The civil servant, it was reliable gathered, has been moved to another section within the Treasury Department. The police are currently investigating suspected cases of theft and money laundering. The order to freeze the account was issued after the bank expressed its misgivings on the activities of the bank account and the holder thereof, who was receiving large amounts of monies at very short intervals. The name of the implicated officer is known to this publication but cannot be mentioned as the matter is still under investigations and so far no one has been arrested.

The government employee is alleged to have deposited the money into the minor’s account, in which she is the sole signatory, without the knowledge of her superiors. The activities in the bank account, according to sources, raised suspicion to the bank and this resulted in it being monitored closely. According to sources, the monies that were transferred to the child’s account ranged from E100 000 and E1 million. Other amounts she allegedly deposited into the account were E200 000 and E500 000. The highest amount that was transferred to the account, as per the insiders, was E1 million. “The bank had many questions about the reasons for depositing such amounts of money into a minor’s bank account. Another thing which made them to monitor the bank account was that all the transactions that were made into the account were from the Treasury Department but it was not clear what was being paid,” said the insider. The source said deposits of large sums of money, such as E1 million and E500 000, were the red flag. Investigations by this publication unearthed that after the monies had been deposited, they were quickly withdrawn by the civil servant or dispatched to different bank accounts locally and outside the country.

Laundering

A red flag on bank accounts is usually issued when there are unusual cash deposits or withdrawals, rapid movement of funds, multiple accounts with similar names or unusual customer behaviour could indicate money laundering activities, prompting the need for further investigation. “An inquiry has been opened to establish why such substantial amounts of monies from government coffers were being deposited into the minor’s bank account. They will also seek to establish what services were rendered by the account holder or signatory to warrant such payments,” said the source. The insider further stated that the investigations by the police would also focus on the holders of the bank account in which some of the monies were transferred after they were deposited by the civil servant into her child’s account. “The investigators must dig deeper into this matter as there are reasonable suspicions that there is a cabal behind all this and the child’s account was being used as passage to steal the money from the State,” said another source close to the matter.

Banks regularly monitor accounts for suspicious or illegal activity. If an account raises red flags, it will be frozen and put under investigation until the issue can be resolved. Suspicious transactions are any event within a financial institution that could be possibly related to fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, or other illegal activities. Suspicious transactions are flagged to be investigated, but many suspicious transactions are simply false positives. Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed the matter and further stated that investigations were still ongoing. In the event the police manage to make a breakthrough in this matter, it will not be the first where a government accountant is implicated in the alleged theft of substantial amount of money belonging to the State.

A matter involving an accountant who was stationed at the Ministry of Tinkhudla Administration and Development is currently pending at the High Court. Mbongeni Mkhwanazi, who was employed as an accountant in the ministry, and his duties included processing payments to service providers and/or suppliers of goods of the Decentralisation Department, features in all 18 counts. The accused persons have been charged for contravening the Prevention of Corruption Act No.3 of 2006 or alternative counts of fraud. In total, they allegedly diverted E5 105 785 from the ministry through unlawful misrepresentation purportedly made by the accused persons to the Treasury Department and /or government. The total diverted amount was initially said to be about E10 million. However, the Crown has amended the indictment and the money in question totals about half the previously stated amount. The offences, according to the indictment, were committed between 2012 and 2013. Their matter is still pending at the High Court before Principal Judge Qinisile Mabuza and when the charges were read to them, they all pleaded not guilty to the 18 counts. Meanwhile, last year, it was reported that the country loses about E91 million per month, due to corruption at government ministries and departments.

Shocking

The shocking revelation was made by the then Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and Madlangampisi outgoing Member of Parliament (MP) Sibusiso Scorpion Nxumalo, during the debate of the report of the committee prior to its adoption in the House of Assembly. The E91 million lost monthly amounts to E1.2 billion annually and this has been the trend since 2019, as revealed by Nxumalo. The money reportedly shot up to E51 million from the previously known E40 million monthly loss to corruption, which is over a 100 per cent growth.
Nxumalo revealed that the report showed scary trends that were evidence that government’s funds were misappropriated and mismanaged. The legislator also revealed that E7.4 billion was unauthorised expenditure by the ministries and government departments without the approval of Parliament, much to the shock of the MPs.

According to the Auditor General, Timothy Matsebula’s report, the Judiciary had failed to account for over E300 million under the Guardian Fund and some people could not claim back their bail money after being acquitted. Crucial documents are lost at the Master’s Office, leaving widows and children worse off. The Judiciary is said to, however, have clarified the whereabouts of the money. Former Lobamba Lomdzala MP Marwick Khumalo was quoted having suggested that there should be a piece of legislation that should have strong clauses that spoke to dealing with perpetrators of corruption.