ACC COMPLETES ETA’S E19 MILLION INVESTIGATION

MBABANE – Newly-elected Senator Linda Nxumalo will soon know the findings of an investigation into fraud allegations that rocked her previous employer and caused her sleepless nights.

Before being appointed a senator, she was the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Eswatini Tourism Authority (ETA), an entity she found in shambles amid allegations of fraud amounting to millions of Emalangeni. In an effort to clean up the mess, following pressure from various sectors including Parliament, she reported the allegations to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS). The Times SUNDAY has gathered that the ACC has completed the investigation. Dlamini also confirmed having been informed by the ACC that the investigation had been completed. There was also confirmation by ACC’s Public Relations Officer Thabsile Mondlane, who said the next step would be a meeting with Dlamini so that they could share how the investigation went.

law did not allow them

Mondlane said as the ACC, they could not divulge anything regarding the investigation as the law did not allow them. “Since she is the one who reported the case, we have a duty to engage with her and give her the report. During the meeting, it will be up to her if she wants the report to be written and made official or not,” Mondlane said. She had said that the meeting had been scheduled for last Friday. However, when Nxumalo was called yesterday morning, she stated that the meeting had been postponed to tomorrow. Last year, it was reported that a forensic audit of the ETA had discovered that the fraud dated back seven years ago and was allegedly masterminded by the deceased Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Gcinithemba Fakudze, who died in 2020, the year on which the alleged fraudulent activities were unearthed. It was also discovered that the fraudulent acts had been going on for some years ago way before Nxumalo’s arrival at the institution.

dragged to inquiries

The unresolved issue made life difficult for Nxumalo regarding executing her duties because as she was often dragged to inquiries to answer on the fraud matter. Last year, she was grilled by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the 11th Parliament, which wanted her to provide answers on the same fraud matter. The PAC bashed Nxumalo for failure to produce receipts of the E19.7 million expenditure and unaccounted-for petty cash amounting to E300 000. This was because the Auditor General (AG) Timothy Matsebula had said in his report that in the absence of supporting documents, it could not be confirmed that the expenditure was spent on the authority’s activities or on personal items, adding that that resulted to unaccounted for public funds.

At some point, the PAC made it known that it was losing patience with Nxumalo and went to an extent of saying if she failed to account for the funds, she was going to be expected to repay the full amount. The PAC was of the idea that they had given Nxumalo ample time to put her house in order and further threatened to issue a recommendation directing her to repay the funds. As if that was not enough, Nxumalo was also hauled before the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs Disciplinary Tribunal to answer on allegations of suspected fraudulent financial statements, notwithstanding that the statements were accepted by all parties concerned.

stifling the renewal

So serious was the matter that at some point, it became apparent that it was stifling the renewal of Nxumalo’s contract and this was despite that Cabinet had approved it. In an effort to get to the bottom of the alleged fraudulent activities committed under the watch of the deceased CFO, Nxumalo sought the assistance of both the police and ACC to launch a full investigation into how the money belonging to the public company was fraudulently stolen. In May 2021, both REPS and ACC acknowledged that the case was reported and was under investigation but the process dragged on for months while she continued being subjected to the torture of having to provide answers before relevant structures such as the PAC. It should be noted that Nxumalo arrived at the parastatal when it was facing serious challenges of over-expenditure and was receiving backlash for not having conducted statutory audits.

To correct this, Nxumalo conducted the statutory audits for six financial years and reports were compiled and submitted to the relevant parties. She also acted promptly in requesting the Board to fill the position of the CFO, after the demise of the incumbent. She presented a request for approval to the Board for initiating the recruitment of a CFO, following Fakudze’s demise. Also worth noting is that in February 2020, she raised a concern that this department was understaffed and had one person running the operation of the finance department something which she felt was not proper since there was no segregation of duties and exposed ETA to a lot of risks. The CEO also made a request for the appointment of a temporal staff member, to assist to address potential risks in the department.

alleged forgery

Nxumalo requested the Board to invite Kobla Quashie and Associates to present the last audits they performed and present their submission on the alleged forgery of audited financial statements for five years beginning in 2015. Kobla Quashie and Associates is said to have presented in detail what happened when they last performed the audit for ETA and this included a questionable E1.9 million which relates to staff loans. From this amount, the late CFO had a loan of E980 000, the then CEO had a loan of E390 000, the former Marketing Manager had a loan of E277 000 and the remainder of about E235 000 was for the rest of the staff,” the minutes state. It was highlighted that Kobla Quashie then presented all certain items in the reports including those signatures, including that of the then Board chairperson, were forged. The reports were reportedly obtained by Kobla Quashie from the Public Enterprise Unit (PEU).

Meanwhile, Nxumalo was elected a senator on Thursday October 12, 2023 together with four other women and five male candidates. The elections were held at the House of Assembly, where Members of Parliament (MP) exercised their power conferred to them by Section 94 (2) of the Constitution which provides that 10 senators should be elected while 20 have to be appointed by His Majesty King Mswati III. The election of Nxumalo has left the parastatal without a CEO which means that the next minister of Tourism and Environmental Authority will be expected to appoint one so that the vacant seat could be filled.

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